Into the Dark
by WonderfulCaricature
Summary: Seven years after leaving Oz, Elphaba returns.
1. Prologue

**Hello:)**

**So I heard a song on Pandora, and it gave me an idea for a story. This chapter is pretty short but only because it's the intro to the actual story. **

**This is all in Fiyero's point of view. Post-musical verse. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Wicked:(**

Every morning, for the past six years, when the clock struck eight, my wife would wake up quietly and leave me to sleep for another hour. She would change into her dress, lace up her boots, run a comb through her hair, and take care of anything else she thought needed tending to after looking in the mirror. Before the clock even hit the half hour, she would be outside tending to the horses and gathering up the eggs left by the couple of chickens we bought last spring. Leaving those in the kitchen, she would go into the room across the hall from us and do what was needed to be done in there. The next part was my favorite: Her boots would have been shed back at the door after she was done with the chickens, all so she could come back into the bed when the clock struck nine. Every morning ever since we'd been together she would do this. I would feel her soft, warm breath on my cheek before her lips pressed against the corner of my mouth. I can't even remember the last time I had a bad wake up.

Afternoons would be devoted to chores in the house, errands in town, deals with neighbors, or just messing something up so we'd have something to do. Our closest neighbor was a five minute walk. My wife never liked the place, claiming it reminded her too much of where she grew up. I wasn't overly fond of it myself: I much rather would have liked a big apartment complex in a big city with big buildings. But the rent was cheap, the people were good, and the independence was liberating. We had both made sacrifices to live the comfortable life we lived, we both knew it and regretted some things. But we were together, and we were happy; so what more did we need?

Dinner was served around the same time every night. It wasn't that this was a rule, but it always happened that we would be done with the days activities around that time. I didn't mind it. Life had been so crazy so far, so a little uniformity wasn't the worst thing in the world. Nuts, I know, but it's true. I usually didn't ask what was in the dinner. We were barely living above the poverty cut off, so if there were unorthodox ingredients in my food, it was best not to ask. I wasn't sick or dying, so there was no reason for me to know. Our boy loved making a game of trying to guess what the dinner was made up of. Not that his mother would ever tell him. She was just give him a half smile as he rattled off the names of the very few foods he knew. Sometimes he would just stare at his bowl in deep concentration, trying to pick off foods he recognized in the soup, stew or casserole.

"Mama," He had mused one night. "You're the same color as my soup."

I paused with the spoon halfway to my mouth, I half expected her to leave the room. She didn't, though, she just laughed at him.

"Well, I can see you get your need to point out the obvious from your father." She grinned at me as I smirked.

"It's pea soup, bug." I told him. He made a face. "No, not that kind." I added.

From then on he assumed any food that had a similar green hue as his mother was a pea. Fresh artichokes. Peas. Tossed salad. Pea salad. His mother swore that it was my genes that made the boy refuse to give up this idea that everything was called a pea. I don't know about that; but I would take pride in the genes that got him to tell us that peas were his new favorite food and green his favorite color. Obviously what worked for the father works for the son, because whenever he would request pea soup, she would make it the next night. She usually caved into whatever request he had, though. It was like she was trying to make up for the life she had wanted to give him. That we had wanted to give him. The only request she refused to give in to was him accompanying her on her nightly walks.

I wasn't even allowed to go with her. I don't know where she went, I don't know what she did, and I don't know how long it lasted. I just knew that she left when the sun was completely gone and was back within two hours, just before our son was dead asleep. To kiss him goodnight. It'd been like that for the past four years. I guess I probably should have worried like a normal person. But I trusted her. She wouldn't do anything to compromise our union. She wouldn't do anything to get us shunned from this town. And she would always come back.

Until last night.

**Like it? Hate it? Intrigued? Please, please, please let me know in a review:)**


	2. Day One

**Hello again! I'm really glad you guys like this! This chapter will be a longer story. Each chapter will be a different day (days will be skipped, you can just assume the boys are on foot, unless otherwise said), so each chapter will vary in length.**

**I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**Disclaimer: Nope. None.**

**_Day One_**

To get from the northeastern most part of Oz to the emerald mines was a six day journey on foot. Maybe half a day less with a horse. But maybe a day more with a six year old. If we stayed on the perimeter of The Scalps we wouldn't be bothered by the mountains and dangers it held. We would probably hit one mountain before we made it to the Glikkus Canal. If we went west instead of south, though, we could make it to the railroad in four days time. There were more towns on the southern route, but I wasn't sure if my son could last a week journey before becoming too much of a handful. The emerald mines would be a pain to pass. If I remembered right, security surrounding the mines was almost as strict as security around the palace in Emerald City. No one would believe it was me even if I presented them with a birth certificate. I could easily pass as an immigrant, and son, from Quox. Well, after a bath and a shave.

That's why we'd stopped in the first town we came to in Oz. It was a really small town, smaller than the town we'd been living in. We tied Baumer, named after my wife's favorite author (whom I had never heard of), to a post on the side of a traveler's refresh station. Baumer was a pain. I'd have much rather taken the other horse, but the boy insisted we take his mother's horse. We sold the other one, something I knew I'd be strangled for later, and both chickens. The house was left as it was, and only things of importance had been shoved into the two bags we took with us. The less we had with us, the better. We'd brought a few trinkets that could be used for trading, since I wasn't sure if the currency in Oz had shifted again. Like it did every decade or so. Bargaining goods was a currency that would never die, though.

"Won't someone steal him?" Liir frowned as we walked away from a neighing Baumer.

"Not here." I muttered, glancing around. Small town or big town, we were in a town full of Gillikinese.

I steered Liir into the building by his shoulders, keeping his wandering mind from wandering too far. The building was warm, which was a nice contrast from the chill outside. There was a fireplace in the room to our right, the living room, I guess. Two couples were sitting in it, talking about something that had all of them snickering. They didn't bother to look up at us when the bell rang to announce our arrival. I was thankful for that. There was still a very large part of me that was afraid someone would recognize me. I knew it was silly, but I had a deep-rooted paranoia. I wasn't exactly welcome here anymore. To our left was a room full of long tables and an even longer table pressed against the far wall. I knew Liir's mouth was watering, because I felt mine doing the same. Food. Warm food that you could rely on the orthodoxness of the ingredients.

A tall, lanky man appeared from behind a door adjacent to the desk at the head of the room. I could have sighed. We were in Oz. His features, poise, and general air screamed Gillikinese. He grinned at us when we reached the desk, more than ready for a nice bath and warm food.

"Good morning, Masters." The blonde greened cordially. "I am Master Rouen, owner and operator of this Safe Haven, where we are more than happy to accommodate people from all over, Vinkus to Munchkinland. We do ask that you leave your personal or political agendas on the tip of your tongue and not out in the air. Are you looking for a package or just specific things?"

"A bath." Liir answered. Rouen's grinned widened as he looked down at Liir.

"We just need a bath." I confirmed, trying to play with the sound of my voice. Most people recognized a Vinkus accent in any part of Oz, even down in Quadling Country. I just needed to be sure no one guessed.

"We have a horse, too." Liir added after frowning at me. "He needs a stable."

"Of course." Rouen wrote some things down on his pad of paper. "Anything else?"

I considered the food for a moment, but ultimately left it out. We needed to save the money we had for the rest of the journey. Oz knows that nothing in the north is cheap. Rouen led us to a room upstairs with a tub in the corner and several counters scattered about for hygiene purposes. He left us on our own to do as we wished and needed in the bathroom, while he took care of Baumer in our short stay. Liir stared at the tub apprehensively. It would be his first time taking a bath on a tub that you didn't need to boil water on your own for. I'll admit, I was pretty excited. The toilet flushed, the water from faucets, and everything drained on its own. Sure, we had to pay a little more than I'd care to pay for all of this, but a good Gillikin bath could last us a long time.

Liir followed me around like a shadow as I prepped the tub with the soaps and oils labelled for use. They were all brightly colored and smelt like something I would have used back in the Vinkus. It was a nice feeling to be surrounded by the scents and sights that reminded me of home. I laughed when Liir gasped at the water rushing from the faucet. He stared at the rushing water before putting his hand under the stream and quickly pulling it back. He opened his mouth to say something but closed it and started helping me add things to the water.

"Daddy..." Liir said as I turned off the water. I glanced over at him. "Is mama dead?"

I helped Liir out of his layers and into the heated water that we scented with something basic. If we soaked ourselves in something nice we'd attract more things than I cared to attract.

"Of course not." I shushed him. "That silly broom of hers probably got her lost."

"The broom doesn't get lost."

"She's not dead, Liir." I reprimanded.

"Why did you talk funny to the man?" He asked, poking a bubble. "Don't you like the way you talk?"

"I'm from Oz, bug." I cleared a patch of dirt off his face. "People will recognize the way I sound in an instant and wonder why you don't sound the same."

"Where are you from?"

"The Vinkus." I grinned.

It took about fifteen minutes to completely scrub the dirt and poverty signs off of Liir. His hair took another ten minutes. And don't even get me started on his nails. Baths were a luxury, though. It took time out of our routine to constantly boil the water and prepare the tub, so we only took them when it was absolutely needed. Liir looked like a shiny new toy after this treat. His hair was lighter, his skin held a healthy color that Vinkans were known to have, and the smell of dirt and grime was gone. He could actually pass as an Ozian. I mean, yeah, by blood he was an Ozian. But blood means nothing when you grow up in a place like he had. Obviously. Otherwise we'd have been living in a palace.

After an hour both of us had been successfully scrubbed free from the inhibitions of the Bad Lands. I watched myself cautiously as I shaved in front of the mirror. Liir was sitting on a counter beside me, flipping through a magazine that was sitting on the windowsill. Every so often he would stop to show me a picture of a blonde, like I had asked him to. But by the time he was finished with the magazine and me with shaving, nothing I needed to know was in the gossip rag.

"You look different." He pointed out the obvious again.

I chuckled and ruffled his hair, "So do you, silly." I stuffed our belongings back into our bags with the newspaper I'd stolen on the way up. "Ready to go find mama?" Liir nodded earnestly.

Baumer had been fed, brushed, and tended to the entire we were bathing. His black coat had a fresh sheerness to it, his hooves had been changed, and a few apples had been placed in a sack and strapped onto his saddle. I thanked the stable boys and forked over a few pennies as a tip. This had probably been an experience for Baumer, too. I knew us taking him in had been a step up from his old owner, and now he was being treated by some of the finest groomers. Soak it up, buddy, you won't see something like that for a long while.

"Come on, boy." I clicked my tongue at the stubborn horse to get him moving. He liked my wife more than me, so it took a couple of tries.

"We give discounts if you're ever in this area again." One of the stable boys told me.

"Thank you." I replied with a hand shake.

"Do you have a particular destination in mind?" He asked, making casual conversation as he led us from the stable.

"Right now we just want to make it out of the mountains." I laughed. "Any ideas how we can do that? In the least amount of time." I added. Like I said, Liir wouldn't make it a week.

"Well," He paused in thought. "You can stay east and avoid the mountains all together. But that will take you right into Munchkinland, and I don't know many people who would willingly travel there. The Yellow Brick Road is there, and that will take you just about anywhere. If you follow it all the way through, though, you'll be in the City. All in all, it's about a month journey on horseback." I nodded. "I wouldn't recommend going through the mountains. If you stay northeast you'll get to the heart of Gillikin quickly, but the rebels have been known to scout that area for immigrants coming in and emigrants trying to flee to Quox."

There was a new lump in my throat. But thinking quickly, I dug for answers, just hoping Liir would keep his mouth shut.

"You'll have to forgive me, we've been out of touch with society for a while, living in Quadling Country." I lied. "I don't mean to look confused, but we've only heard whispers. Rumours really."

He looked at me suspiciously for a moment before shaking the look away with a laugh and patting my shoulder. "You have my utmost respect, friend. Anyone who can live a few years in Quadling Country deserves to be treated like a prince. Take the northeast route. If you only stop to sleep once in a while, you can make it to the mines in four days time. There's one mountain, but the pass is clear and obvious. The mines are monitored by Gale Forcers and rebels like, but if you're from Oz, you'll have no problem passing through." He stopped with us at the road. "You are from Oz, aren't you?"

"The Vinkus." Liir answered before I could stumble for a reply.

I sighed, "Born but not raised." I added so the stable boy wouldn't mention Liir's odd accent.

"You'll be fine then." He laughed. "It's not like your fugitives."

I smiled back tightly. No one could really call me a fugitive, could they? No. Serving time as a scarecrow is just as good as any sentence in Southstairs. I mean, the treatment I had to go through just to get blood in my veins and flesh on my bone. It was the most painful week of my life. I remember lying on the floor of the bathroom, because the cold stones felt soothing against the fire spreading in my body. We would be up all hours of the night. She'd be chanting spells and wringing a rag out over whichever area she was working on. And all I could do was lay on the floor, incapable of moving because of the pain. I didn't come back the way I had looked before. I'd lost my definition, my birthmarks, and most of my recognizable features. Especially my ass. But she saved me from being brutally murdered and from being lawn decoration; no matter the pain or humiliation I suffered in that week, I loved her even more for it. And she loved me. I wasn't a fugitive. I was an angel's miracle. As far as Oz is concerned, I'm dead.

"Thank you again." I said as I pulled Liir up on the horse after me.

We rode until the sun was low in the sky. The mountains breezed by to our right and the border into Quox was miles to our left. There had been no others on the route. We saw a few animals glaring down at us from the skies, mountains and scattered trees. But for the most part we had the area to ourselves. Baumer took a break when we got to a small watering hole. Liir filled up his canteen and stretched his legs before we finished the rest of our day journey. When we did stop, it was on the edge of a formation, speckled with caves and small creeks. The horse would only last so long before he became slow and nearly unmanageable under our weight.

Liir sat on the edge of the watering hole as I tried gathering my thoughts together, coming up with a plan of action, and anything to help. Obviously we would stay northeast until we hit the railroad. We would follow that all the way to Dixxi House and then take off towards Shiz and ultimately the City. But we were still chasing wild geese with no bow. I had an idea of where she'd be, although the idea of it put a pit in my stomach. Because nothing was making sense. I knew she was here in Oz, but where was what was haunting me. What I needed to know, though, was what happened in our absence. Seven years isn't too long of an absence, but a lot can happen in seven years. Cities can be built or destroyed. Families can flourish or perish. Anything could have happened. Oz help me, but I needed a library. Surely they kept public records.

The plan was for us to sleep a few hours as the sun set, get most of our travelling down under the light of the moon. That way we wouldn't increase our chance of running into the rebels that the stable boy mentioned. The fewer obstacles the better. We could ride Baumer during the night hours, take a small break for him at dawn, and then continue til sundown on foot. Once we made it to Shiz, I could pay to have him groomed again; but until then I needed him to be the best damn horse he could be. Meals would be eaten sparsely. Eat what we needed, when we needed, but keep it to a bare minimum. We didn't need much, so there was no reason we'd not have enough to last til the next town.

"Daddy?" Liir shifted against me. We were on the ground under a couple of trees, further away from the watering hole and the road. I huddled him against me, both of us sharing two blankets and body heat to fight off the night chill.

"What is it, bug?" I tightened my grip around him when I felt him shudder.

"I miss mama." He whispered. I could hear the tears in his words. Not matter how tightly I held him, I wouldn't be able to comfort that. So I settled for a kiss on the crown of his head.

"I do, too, bug."

He snuggled deeper into me to the point where I could feel his silent tears and drool wetting my clothes. I tried to rock him and soothe him until sleep came, but it was no use.

"Daddy?" His muffled voice asked again.

"Hm?"

"Do you think mama's safe?" I couldn't even opened my mouth to lie to him, but he didn't need me to answer. We both knew. So he tried a different question. "Do you think she misses me, too?" His voice cracked.

"Oh, bug, I know she misses you. Every clock tick she's gone, she's thinking of you."

Liir was quiet for a moment before saying, "I love you, daddy."

"I love you, bug." I kissed his crown again and hummed until his body slackened from sleep.

**Aw? Is your heart breaking a little for Liir?**

**Important: This is the first story that I have a few chapters written in advanced (Just so excited to write it!), so how about we make a deal? Ten reviews and you get the update? Seriously, they chapters are waiting in document manager right now to be viewed. What've you got to lose, eh?**

**See you in ten;)**


	3. Day Two

**This chapter is for musicalvampirelove: you're right, I needed to update! Day two and three are short, so I'll just give you them both in one chapter:) I just wrote one of my favorite days, so I got to get you guys there quick!**

**Disclaimer: Still no. **

_**Day Two**_

In all our times in the Bad Lands, with all the chores, running around, standing in the hot sun for hours, nothing compared to the pain of walking in the bitter air. We never had these bitter chills in Vinkus either. Well, maybe we did. But we always switched castles before the bad weather hit us. And even if the weather got a little unbearable, we never had to go out in it. Even the Bad Lands had reasonable weather. And the weather was constant there. If it was warm, it'd be warm for months at a time. If it was cool, cool for several months. In The Scalps, though, weather was continuously changing. This morning had been warm, tonight was bitterly cold. To the point where I'm sure it would start snowing soon. I tried not to let it show that I was bothered, though. I didn't need Liir to start feeding off of my negative emotions.

We hit another small town, smaller than the first one in the early hours of the third day. Baumer and Liir were still slow from having been woken up roughly by the oncoming storm, so we reached the place in more time than I hoped, but we made it nonetheless. There was a room to the side of one of the buildings where plenty of other horses and mules were tied up to individual stalls. I paid the small man at the door and handed him Baumer's reigns. He said a few things, enough things for me to make out his Munchkinland accent. Liir's posture straightened up when he recognized the sound of the man's voice to. To my many silent thanks, the boy chose not to open his mouth about the connection to his mother's voice. The Munchkin told us that there was a pub down the way that was open all hours and might have rooms available to wait out the storm. He warned me that it might not be the most ideal place to take a child, though.

So I took Liir's hand in mine and lead him down the road and into the pub the man mentioned. I warned him not to talk to anyone unless I gave a nod, but mostly I begged him to keep his opinions to himself.

All too intuitive like his mother, Liir asked, "Are you not liked here, daddy?"

"I'm not sure." I answered honestly.

The pub was warm but reeked to the high heavens. I swallowed back the gag threatening to upchuck my insides and waited for the stench to become normal. It took a while, but after a few moments passed, it was tolerable. Liir coughed into his arm but kept quiet like I had asked him. Unlike the first stop we made, the people in this building all watched us as we walked in. None of them were dressed any nicer than us, some even looked worse off, but I think the appearance of Liir caught their attention the most. He did not look like he belonged in this place at all.

"Can I get two mugs of warm milk?" I asked, still holding Liir's hand, approaching the bar.

The man tending the bar looked up at me then to a sign hanging to his right. It said that they didn't serve minors. "Come on, sir, we've been travelling for days." He wasn't phased. He looked at me long and hard before glancing to a table a few paces away. Occupied by two men in uniforms. "Alright, I got it." I grunted, leading Liir out of the pub.

We'd just to have to outride the oncoming storm.

_**Day Three**_

"How did you and mama fall in love?" Liir asked as we sat under a grouping of trees to protect ourselves from the pouring ran. See what I mean about his weather in Oz?

"Well, I wasn't always this honorable, dashing man I am today, you know." I winked at him and he giggled. "I was a very bad child when I was growing up. Like that boy from plot three?" Liir nodded in understanding. "There are these things called schools here in Oz. How mama teaches you things back at home; well, school is where you get taught with a whole bunch of others your age. So we went to one of these schools together when we were just starting out as adults."

"Mama said what schools are, and that you almost ran her over."

I laughed, "_I _would have never run your mother over. It was the man driving my car that almost ran her over." Green does mean go. "But you're getting ahead some. I was a bad child, and my parents shipped me off to quite a lot of schools; but I always managed to do something bad to get kicked out and sent to another."

"Then you almost ran her over."

"You know what," I nudged him in the side. "You obviously know this story better than I do, so you tell me how we met and fell in love."

Liir let out a laugh that was all his mother's and grinned excitedly. "Okay, so mama was hurrying to catch a class she was running late for. That's where you almost hit her. But you didn't know you almost killed mama. Because if you'd met her then, you would have fallen in love with her right there."

"Is that so?" I laughed.

"If I was you, I'd have fallen in love with mama right there." Liir gave me one of his mother's looks, and I nodded in agreement. Maybe it would have sped up with inevitable. "There was a party, and mama and her friend became friends that night. Her friend changed the way she looked, and so mama started dressing like her friend showed her. Mama said you tossed your hair."

A loud clap of thunder hid my own loud laughter as I thought back on the moment Liir was getting to. For the love of Oz, I tossed my hair.

"I told you, I wasn't honorable back then."

"Right. So one day you and mama were in class -this is when you did your hair tossing-, and some very bad things happened. And mama was so upset, she knew she had to help. And you helped her help. You ran away with her since you were helping her. Mama said you were setting something free, and your hands touched. And that's when you and mama fell in love." He ended matter-of-factly.

"Oh, bug," I sighed. "You've got it all wrong." He frowned at me. "If anything, I was a fool in love at that point."

"What do you mean?"

"There was a party on the first night I arrived at the school, and your mama showed up in this ridiculous black hat. She was literally a showstopper. Everyone stopped dancing, the music stopped, and all eyes were on her. She was center of attention and not the good kind, either. That, bug, that is when I fell in love with your mama." She didn't care a twig what people thought about her, and that's what made me love her.

"So it was love at first sight?"

"I guess you can say that."

"Good, because I always tell mama that's when you fell in love with her...the moment you first laid eyes on her."

I kissed his temple.

"She says that it wasn't, because green is a color you have to get use to. Especially on a person. But I always tell her she's wrong and just to ask you. Green is my favorite color, and green is daddy's favorite color. Right?"

I squeezed his hand and looked out into the rain. "Green is beautiful."

**The further they get into Oz, the more problems they're going to come across.**

**Next chapter: The first sign of Elphaba...**

**Leave a review and let me know your thoughts!:D**


	4. Day Five

**Hi! **

**Disclaimer: Wait...nevermind. **

_**Day Five**_

"Liir, wake up."

The six year old stirred slightly but stayed cuddled under the blankets.

"Liir." I hissed, hearing the noises come closer. Gale Force trackers. "Come on, bug, we need to go now."

I pulled the blankets off of the boy, draped them over Baumer, and helped Liir to his feet. As soon as we were both on the horse, Baumer shot off through the the mountains. I kept him as close to the road at possible, but not close enough for the trackers to be on our heels. The motion of being on horseback jilted Liir awake, and he would glance from side to side nervously, feeding off of my increased heartbeat. We came to a rock formation after riding for the better half of an hour. Out of breath, I swung off the horse, telling Liir to stay on. I glanced around the area.

"Stay here. If you hear someone, take Baumer behind the rocks over there, okay?" Liir nodded slowly. "I'll be right back." A look of pure fear struck his face. I knew what he was thinking. "I'll be back. Here." I handed him a locket that had a piece of paper with his mother's signature scrawled across it, as insurance that I'd be back. Liir nodded again, this time more confident.

Moving swiftly, I crept back up towards the road and climbed up into one of the trees on the side of it. I could hear the trackers howling out as they alerted their owner where they were. Not long after the trackers were heard, their lean and sleek bodies came into view just at the crest of the up-slope. I clutched the knife in my hand tighter, waiting to see the whites of the Gale Forcer's eyes. The trackers came into full view, they stopped momentarily under my tree, still barking, but ran on when they assumed there was nothing worth fussing over. I sighed in relief when they passed out of view in the corner of my eye. The Gale Forcer in charge of them finally appeared on at the peak of the slope. I waited. Waited. He was on his way down, running with his rifle swinging wildly from side to side. Waited. Waited.

The Gale Forcer dropped like a ton of bricks when my knife hit him right where I had intended. I waited another couple of minutes before coming down from the tree. Cautiously, I approached the fallen Forcer, checking to make sure the trackers were still making noise far ahead. Coast was clear. I knelt next to the Gale Forcer carefully and checked his pulse. Good. It wasn't not there, a little fainter than I was use to, but strong enough for me to know that he would wake up in a few hours. I tore a strip of fabric from his cloak and tied it firmly about the spot where the knife protruded from his leg.

"You understand, my friend, don't you?" I asked the unconscious man, pulling the knife from his leg and cleaning it with his pant leg. "I have a wife to find and son's hopes to keep up." I checked his pockets for change or something more useful.

There was a rolled up piece of paper in his cloak. I didn't know what any of it said, but I recognized the signature scrawled at the bottom of the page. Glancing around first, I stuffed the note in my pants. I took the Gale Forcer's cloak. He'd be fine for a few hours. The weather wasn't that bad today.

"My son's cloak is thinner than his blood." I explained.

I sprinted back through the area towards the place where I left Liir. My son sat there on Baumer, his eyes heavy with the desire to sleep. He grinned when his eyes rested on me.

"I knew you'd be back."

"I can't leave you, bug. There'd be no one to have an intelligent conversation with." I winked.

"I'm not really tired, we can keep riding."

"We can't really stay here much longer anyway." I told him, climbing back up onto Baumer.

Baumer seemed to sense my urgency. His strides were long and confident, carrying us past the clueless trackers and away from the Gale Forcer I dropped back there. We didn't reach any towns. We did see the outline of one up in the mountains, but to go up there would have been to waver from our path, and I didn't want to spend any longer on this path than need be. Besides, now we had a destination after we passed the emerald mines. We just needed to reach the railroad. That's all.

Two more days and the trip would get easier. Food would be easier to come by, by which I mean steal. Sleep would come easier. And with any luck, we'd spend a few hours inside a day.

My father would die if he knew how I was living life. I'd gone from living a crème de le crème life, and now I was lucky if I even got the opportunity to walk near those living that type of life.

_**Day Six**_

My lungs were on fire.

Baumer was out of sight now, but I could just barely hear the pounding of his hooves over the howling of the trackers behind us. The damn horse would have never left my wife behind. We had been gathering fallen leaves to make a bed on when we heard a twig snap and a low growl. Then Baumer had taken off like lightning. We hadn't even realized he left until he neighed somewhere in the distance. At first I wanted to brush it off as a animal, but when I saw the glint of the Gale Forcer's badge, I grabbed Liir and booked it. Leaving our blankets and canteens on the ground where we had set them, we took of running in the same direction that Baumer went.

That's when we heard the tracker howl. It sent a chill through my body. I heard it called the dead man's chill.

Liir was quicker than I was, only by a few paces, but he took off on his own when I told him to follow Baumer's hooves. We had distance on the tracker and the Gale Forcer, but there was no time to stop. Something cut my leg. A branch snagged my cloak. We were running blindly into the dark abyss before us. The only thing I could see was Liir's cloak flowing wildly behind him as he jumped over logs, swerved to avoid trees, and ducked to keep from being hit by low branches that seemed to pop up every other second.

A scream caught in my throat when Liir jumped over a log and then went down. I didn't even have time to stop. Shock set in quick. I mean, I saw it happen in a millisecond. It didn't help me much at all, though. I tripped over the log, not even thinking to jump, and tumbled into the same...wherever Liir had vanished. I landed roughly on a something thin that dug into my back, coughing as all of the wind was knocked out of me. I gasped for air as I felt around to get some idea of where I was.

Clumsily I rolled off whatever I was on. I panted while my eyes adjusted to the new change of light and scenery. Was it a broom? I squatted down and peered at what I had been on. It was in two pieces.

"Daddy?"

"Liir?" I coughed. "Are you okay? Where are you?"

From the corner of my eye I saw Liir's small frame scrambling down the wall, using whatever was there to help him. He landed on the ground safely with a soft thud and then sprinted into my arms. I hugged him tightly, making sure I wasn't hallucinating and that he was all there. I let out a heavy sigh and kissed his cheeks firmly. I don't know what I would have done if...

"We have to go get Baumer." He said hurriedly.

"We need to wait til the howling stops." I whispered. "Baumer will find us, remember."

Holding his hand, I went back to where I had landed. It was a broom. Split in two at the middle. I picked up the shaft end and held it close to my face. Liir was on the ground examining the other piece. Everything in here was still and quiet. A soothing type. Liir ruined that stillness when he gasped and started calling out excitedly.

"Mama!" Over and over.

I clamped my hand over his mouth and pulled him to my chest. What in Oz's name was he doing?!

"Liir!" I hissed. "Be quiet."

"It's mama's broom!" He wriggled away from me. "Look at the other half!" He snatched the other half and thrust it at me. "Look! Just before the head. It's mama's broom! Mama!" He called out again, quieter this time.

Did he honestly think his mother was here right now? She would have came running the second we fell through that opening and started talking. I didn't say anything on it, though. I just took the other half and walked into the moonlight streaming down from the opening. My heart skipped a beat. It was her broom. Her initials were carved into the base of the broom. It was hers. I didn't know how to feel. How close had we been to her? How many times were we in close proximity? How many people and animals did we see that she saw hours before? But why was the broom broke? What had been strong enough to break a broom that had magic in it? Was this where she had been caught? I looked around for signs of a struggle. Was she even caught? Did she sleep in here and had been surprised? Did she fall through the same opening?

"Look." Liir handed me a piece of paper that had his mother's writing scribbled on it the next morning. "What is it?" He added as I scanned over the paper. We finished our sweep of the hideaway, ready to leave. We had found a way out earlier in the morning when the light started seeping into the place.

"A list of castles in the Vinkus." I muttered as we climbed the makeshift stair case.

"There's more than one?" I rolled my eyes at his mother's tone.

"Yeah." I shrugged. "It's been that way for a while." I added as if it helped justification.

"Do you think mama's going to the Vinkus?"

"It's possible." Though, for the life of me, I couldn't say why.

"Why doesn't she just come home?"

I don't know. "I have some theories." I told him. "But let's not dwell on that." I glanced around outside. Baumer was standing a few paces away, staring at me as if this whole incident was my fault. Yes, you stupid beast, I wanted the trackers to find us. I shook my head before beckoning for Liir to follow me. "C'mon, we have a long way to go."

"We're going to the Vinkus?"

I sighed, "We're going to the Vinkus."

**Please review! They keep us writers motivated to please you readers. I'm begging as much as I can beg over an author's note.**

**Next chapter will be up soon if you review!:)**


	5. Day Seven

**Hello again:) Thank you for all your support!**

**Have some Fiyeraba in here. **

**Disclaimer: I own a car. **

_**Day Seven**_

"Are we going to stop soon?"

"We can't, bug." I mumbled, digging through my cloak to get change for the other traveler in front of us. "Are you sure we can take the horse with us, too?" I directed the question to the traveler.

"Positive. I spent a few pieces of gold to get my mule from Red Sand to the mines, and the damn thing died a day after we got off the train. Old age gets the best of all of us, I s'pose." The traveler kicked the dirt road.

"Just a few pieces of gold?" He nodded. "Great, thank you much, sir." I shook his hand graciously. "Listen, you haven't heard anything about the Gale Force capturing a witch have you?"

"The Gale Force captures witches daily nowadays, my friend, you'll have to be more specific."

I scratched the back of my neck, "No one similar to the Witch?"

"You mean..." I told him yes before he could finish the thought. "No. I've been in the mountains of the Vinkus, though, before I got onto the train. I'm not the first person to hear any current events. But I'll tell you what, the day we get another one like her in Oz, that's the day I'll show my face on the streets." He shook his head and pocketed the change.

"What do you mean?"

"Her High Sorceress has brother against brother right now." The man scoffed. "It's about time someone come forth and shake the government up to give Ozians a common enemy." I didn't know who he was hoping to be the common enemy.

"What about the royal family in the Vinkus? If we asked for a few days shelter there, would we get it?"

"Oh, yeah." He nodded earnestly. "The Queen seems to get gentler with age." I smiled. "I've heard she has been a bit touchy behind castle walls."

"Why?" I frowned.

"Well, she hasn't been the same Queen we all fell in love with since the King died." I felt my stomach turn. "And then she's got to prepare the entire Vinkus for the event of her death when the Princess will take over. The little sweetheart hasn't even said more than a few words yet. But no matter how stressed out she is, the Queen will never turn down a guest." He grinned.

We bid farewell to the traveler and continued past the mines until the train station came into view. I stared ahead as I held Liir's hand with one hand and Baumer's reigns with the other. My father was dead? They had a daughter? I had a sister? I felt sick to my stomach. What else did I miss?

_**Day Nine**_

Unless you count me telling myself, once we were out in the Bad Lands, I wasn't told the words 'I love you' until Liir was twenty two months old. I didn't expect it from her. I knew that they weren't three words to be thrown around for things like making her a meal or massaging her shoulders. I knew she probably hadn't been told them until Glinda; so I was content to keep telling her I loved her until the day came when she could say it back. I would say it every night before we went to sleep. Sometimes twice. You can't really help it if you say it during sex. Well, I couldn't, at least. One time when she was pregnant with Liir, I thought she was going to say it. I had traded my a few eggs for a book she'd been eyes for a month and gave it to her for her birthday. She had stared down at it with such pride, and then she looked at me. I swore she was going to say it; but then Liir kicked. It was the first time he had. I wouldn't have traded the two for the world.

She told Liir she loved him before she told me. I can't lie, I had been jealous of him when she started saying it to him. But after about a week the feeling faded. She wouldn't be here if she didn't love me. She wouldn't have had my child if she didn't love me. Other girls didn't need that type of bond to reproduce but not her. She wouldn't have considered it if she didn't love me. Still, though, watching a woman who had been so afraid of being a mother and nurturing a child say those three little words to someone else right in front of you...disheartening didn't cover it exactly. Can you blame me? I had given up everything for her. I'd given up all my comforts and needs to be with her. I'd given up my name and nearly lost my life. All for her. And I couldn't even get something so deceivingly simple in return.

It hadn't been a particularly special day when she said it for the first time. Obviously the night was significant, but the day leading up to it was full of many diaper changes. As always. Anyway we were lounging on the couch after Liir had just stopped crying and was now falling asleep in her arms. She mentioned her parents' marriage and how she didn't want us to end up like them. She said she had memories of them being so distant and didn't want that for us.

"It won't be us." I had assured her, playing with a lock of her hair. "We're not married." I hadn't said it bitterly, more like matter-of-factly.

"Well," She had torn her attention away from Liir to look at me. "We are, though, aren't we? More married than most married couples I've seen. And what is marriage but a contract? A set of rules. Promises." She untangled herself from me and put Liir in the bassinet next to the couch. I watched her as she disappeared into the back room, coming back out with small pieces of paper and a pen.

"What are you doing?" I had stared at her in complete amusement. Her mind baffled me.

"Let's get married right now."

I had locked eyes with her instantly.

"Don't we need a priest or a shaman or, I don't know, an official?"

"You don't want to get married?" Her eyebrows shot up.

"Let's get married." I grabbed one of the pieces of paper and pen, using the coffee table in front of us to write on. "I promise to never forget your birthday. Again." She grinned.

"I promise to only make fun of your dancing through life philosophy once in a while."

"I promise to respect your interests."

"I promise to never belittle you. And I promise to build you back when you're knocked down."

"I promise to do everything in my power to help you defy gravity."

Her grin widened before a serious look graced her features. "I promise to never leave you."

I squeezed her hand as I took the pen back. "If you're ever lost, I promise I will follow you into the dark."

She took the pen back from me as she bit her bottom lip. I watched her face as she scribbled down something then turned the paper over and signed her name. She set the pen next to my paper and slapped my hand away when I reached for it.

"I," She turned to face me and laced our fingers together as she stated her name. "Promise to love you until the day we die and whatever is in store for us after." I still wasn't _I love you._

I followed her lead then took her hands again when I was finished with my last promise and signature. "I, Fiyero Tiggular, promise to never stop reminding you why I love you and how much I love you until the day we die and wherever we go after that."

Our kiss had been deep and passionate but sweet and tender at the same time. Our first kiss as a married couple. I remember thinking how crazy the whole thing was. My mother would have been shocked into a momentary fainting spell if she had known. I smiled against _my wife's _lips as the thought of my mother fainting came to mind. My wife had let out a soft laugh and pulled back a little to look at me. I ran a hand up her arm and snaked it around her waist to bring her closer to me. Her hands had been on my chest, and she ran them up to my neck and played with the hairs on the back of my neck.

"Fiyero?" She whispered, her breath warm on my face. I mumbled incoherently in response, ready to take her lips in again. "I love you."

"I love you." I had said and then reclaimed her lips.

The train's whistle sounding pulled me from my thoughts. Liir was curled up in the corner with some Lambs. I hadn't realized they were Lambs until Liir had crashed, and they started chittering excitedly about the boy. Part of me wished he would wake up to hear them, but then again, I would have to explain to him why they were in fact talking. We never came across Animals in the Bad Lands, so we never had to explain to Liir the difference between Animals and animals. So I had let him sleep.

Slowy but surely the train was coming to a gradual stop. We couldn't have been to the first stop so early. I frowned and poked my head out the door, careful not to make too much of myself seen. Pulling back in quickly, I cursed under my breath. Gale Forcers. Probably doing a quick sweep for anyone who wasn't supposed to be on the train. We'd paid for the ride, but no doubt they'd be seriously suspicious of a man, a boy, and a horse. The exact grouping who evaded the authorities a few nights ago. Not to mention, most people who had nothing to hide took seats in the social cars, not the animal car.

"We were never here." I looked around to all the animals and Animals. A few of them blinked at me, but I swore a couple of them bowed their heads in understanding. "Liir." I gently shook him awake. "This is our stop."

"We're here?" He frowned.

"We're riding the rest of the way." I said as I lead him over to Baumer.

The beast stomped a foot out of indignation but let us mount him. I rolled my eyes. He was moody and opinionated but ultimately complied when the time was needed for compliance. He was just like his owner. Baumer took a few uneasy steps towards the side opposite where I had seen the Gale Forcers then back tracked a second, waiting for the train to slow more. A few breaths later when the sound of trackers howling was louder than the creaking of the wheels, Baumer took off like lightning, leaping from the train and barreling into the cover of the Gillikin Forest. Hunching low over Liir, I held onto him tightly with one arm and held onto the reigns with my free hand. Just our luck the Gale Forcers would anticipate our move.

Nothing came, though, as we traveled away from the train tracks.

"Daddy?" Liir asked after we started through the forest on foot after darkfall.

We were both walking funny from riding for so long. I thanked my lucky stars that Prince Fiyero Tiggular was dead, and no one was around to see how I was so shamefully walking. In the Bad Lands when I had been on the horse all day, I waited til he and his mother were out of the living room before stumbling in there and flopping down onto the couch. She always laughed at me, but she never made me move. She would bring me out whatever dinner was and then would retire to the bedroom early, so I could sneak in while she was in the washroom. It was kind of an unspoken understanding. Usually I got a special surprise while we were in bed. Since I worked so hard and suffered equally. Usually. Not always. As I was constantly reminded: Pleasure is a two way street.

"Yeah?" I attempted to walk normal so Liir wouldn't make a habit; but I failed miserably.

"What happens once we find mama?" He did a weird little jig to shake off the feeling we both had. I copied him. It was worthless.

"What do you mean?" Actually, I hadn't really considered it.

"Are we going home?"

"Well," I pondered it for a moment. "We'll probably have to find a new home. Assuming we don't find her too soon, you know the plot will be ransacked and set up for another family."

Since plot developments were a community, if one plot wasn't pulling its weight, they were replaced. In our case, once our absence become burdensome to the surrounding plots, the house would be ransacked, gutted, cleaned, and offered to a new family. In our development, there were fourteen plots. Each plot has a specific job. There can be anywhere from one to four families running a plot, with anywhere from one to four (or more) persons per family. Plots one, two, seven, eight, nine, and fourteen made up the market, the central part of the development.

Plot one was ran by four families. It was three times the size of our cottage, and it also had a main floor where business was done. It was most commonly called Central. It's where all the business, paperwork, and main authority work is done. Plots two and fourteen are on either side of it. Two was where goods were made, bought, and sold to customers. That's where I got the book from. Fourteen is where more expensive goods were at. Things like plates, paintings, goblets, and other things like that. The quality ranged from affordable to not in a million years. In the middle of the street is where vegetables, herbs, and grains were sold for cooking and baking needs on certain days. On the other side of the street were seven, eight, and nine. The apothecary, the blacksmith shop, and the butcher.

One each side of the market were four plots with equal amounts of land. Plots ten and twelve were for livestock. Ten was solely for birds and twelve for mammals. Livestock was mostly slaughtered, but the plots did have a share they kept for selling and trading. Like Baumer and the chickens. Plot thirteen was for grain. Plot eleven was only passed down from family member to family member. It grew what had been short last harvest. Whether it be grains, fruits, vegetables, or herbs. On the other side of the market, to the west, ironically, were where herbs, vegetables, and fruits were grown and harvested. Plot three was for herbs, plot four for vegetables, plot six for fruits, and plot five (our plot) for vegetables.

It was a bit of a sick joke we got stuck there instead of somewhere else. Central saw me and put us there immediately. Scarecrow. Liir, blindly, and his mother teased me about it every harvest. I always like to mention how the community swears that plot five is the westernmost plot.

"Do you know where we can go?"

"Let's worry about getting mama first. You know she'll have an idea."

"Maybe we can use one of those castles in the Vinkus. There were seven, right?" Eight.

I opened my mouth to say something but stopped. We could.

"Are there poor people in the Vinkus."

"Of course."

"How many bedrooms are in a castle?"

I eyed him cautiously. "In the Vinkus?" He nodded. "About thirty families could live comfortably in each castle." I told him.

Liir's face dropped. "And the royal family uses the castles?"

"They use one castle between the Thousand Year Grasslands and The Thursk Desert." I replied slowly.

"And there's just one King and one Queen?"

"Just one Queen and Princess." I said dejectedly, starting to catch his drift.

"Huh." He mumbled. "Seems pretty greedy to let those other castles get dusty when your own people could make good use of those rooms. If I was in the royal family, I would do something about that."

I stared at my son as he kicked a bed of leaves.

The irony was killing me.

**Liir does not know about who his parents are in Oz. He gets the bombshell next chapter. It was one of my favorite chapters to write ;)**

**Who do you think Fiyero's tracking down in the Gillikin? And what did you think of Fiyero's I love you memory? Leave your thoughts in a review!**

**If I get lots of them, say eight..., I'll post the next chapter before the weekend is out:)**

**Love you all!**


	6. Day Eleven

**Eight-schmeight. Like I said, this was one of my favorite chapters to write, so I can't hoard it for the eighth review!**

**Disclaimer: I wish!**

_**Day Eleven**_

Liir stayed close to my side as we walked Baumer up the long path to the grandiose house laid out in front of us. It looked more like a castle, if you asked me, but the locals all called it a house. Liir stared at the giant structure in amazement. He had never seen a house that big, not to mention a building that big. The buildings in the Bad Lands are all one story, with no more space than needed. I tugged both bodies along with me until we were met by two of the servants of the house.

"May I help you?" The older one asked coolly.

"I'm an old friend." I told him, thrusting the reigns in his hands. "The horse is named Baumer, he needs food and rest."

"I'm sorry," The younger one called after me, as I lead Liir up the steps of the house, completely confusified. "But who do you think you are?"

"You go tell your master that his snuggle bear has returned, and I'll wait here.

The younger servant watched us for a moment before leaving us alone in the foyer. The older servant left us outside to reluctantly tend to Baumer. A new sense of confidence washed over me. I felt like I was back at Shiz. It'd been a while since I felt like this. I felt like, as my wife often said, I could defy gravity. Well, technically she said my ego had inflated so much it alone could give me flight. But it's all the same. Somewhere in the huge house a door slammed shut. And I mean slammed. To the point where I could have sworn I felt the ground quiver. The slam was followed by quick footsteps. On the floor above us. They were light footsteps, probably sprinting from whatever room he'd been in to get down to the foyer.

"Listen, you." The master of the house appeared where the servant had left. Clearly I was unrecognized. I refused the urge to touch my face, surely I wasn't that different. "I don't know who you think you are or where you heard that name from, but I will not hesitate to call the authorities to haul your rear to the nearest prison."

"Avaric," I frowned. "Surely you've not forgotten me already."

"He's dead!" Avaric barked. "I will not stand here and have you _mock _me. Iago!"

A shot of adrenaline rushed through me, we did not come all this way to be taken away. "My first night at Shiz we got so drunk after the Ozdust that we paraded around our room in nothing but sunglasses and passed out on the floor in between our beds, cuddling. We swore we'd tell anyone who asked that we shacked up with twins named Ki and Ko from the City. I called you my cuddly pooh, in jest, and you called me snuggle bear." I rushed to say it all before his servant could reappear.

Avaric stood where he was, shocked into stillness. "No..." He whispered, stepping up to us as his servant entered.

"Master."

My old friend cast a glance over his shoulder before peering at me, trying to find similarities between me and the boy he use to know. "Iago, go get a room ready for our guests and set two extra plates at dinner tonight." Avaric ran a hand over his face. "I'll be damned." He laughed nervously and embraced me in a long overdue hug. He laughed again and pulled back, "I'll be damned! Look at you! Come, come: We'll have some drinks in my office."

"Last I heard you were murdered by some Gale Forcers." Avaric stared at me from his liquor tray as I draped mine and Liir's cloaks over a couch. "But here you are. With a boy, no less!" Avaric downed a glass. "You're going to have to fill in the missing pieces otherwise I might start to think I'm going crazy from all the alcohol."

"Likewise." I said. "I haven't been in Oz for seven years." Avaric muttered 'damn' as he handed me a glass of whatever he was having. "I've been living in the Bad Lands. The Gale Forcers had me tied up to this pole in the middle of a field in Munchkinland," I frowned and shook my head, remembering it all to well, but censoring myself for Liir's sake. "They were asking me all these questions about...well, you know. They were hitting my legs with the butts of their rifles, and then I just remember this weird feeling washing over over me." I told him about being a Scarecrow and trailing with the farm girl from Kansas. Liir kept his eyes on me the entire time, this was his first time hearing all of it, too.

"You skipped?" Liir asked judgmentally. It worried me how much of his mother's natural criticism he inherited.

"I don't skip." I snapped.

"It sounds an awful lot like skipping when you explain it."

"Liir," I huffed. "That's beside the point."

"Okay, skippy."

"The boy's-"

"My name is Liir." Liir seethed, his cool indifference to Avaric was obvious. Just like his mother.

Avaric corrected himself, though, I felt, his next question had already been answered when Liir spoke to him. "And Liir's mother is..."

"Yes." I nodded.

"So why are you back in Oz? Not that I'm not glad to see you, even if you do look different. If you were living happily together, why not just stay where you were at?" Avaric laughed before he finished. "Don't tell me she ran away from you." He rolled his eyes in amusement.

Liir glared at him, and I stayed quiet.

"What?" Avaric spat his drink out and leaned forward in his chair. "She left you? The Wicked Witch of the West left the crowned prince of the Vinkus?" He found it all too hilarious. I frowned at him as Liir snapped his attention to me. Surprise...you're a prince. Of the same royal family you reprimanded.

"I think she was taken." I confessed quietly. "She went on these walks every night, and one time she didn't come back. She left all her keepsakes, though; so I highly doubt she left willingly. We found her broom the other day when we were running from some trackers." Liir gripped the two pieces of his mother's broom tightly. Avaric eyes focused on the broom then found Liir's face. I knew he was searching the boy's face for the characteristics given to him by his mother and myself. "You haven't heard anything, have you?"

"My friend," Avaric tore his gaze away from Liir. "Many things have changed, but I assure you, I have not. The only current events I look into are ones that directly pertain to me. My wife would know, she's very rehearsed in politics." Avaric told me. "I'll ask her before dinner." I nodded. "So you have no clue what's been going in Oz since you left?" I shook my head. "Here, let me refill that...you'll need it."

"Is Glinda still in power?" I asked. Avaric paused on his way towards the cart, casting me a long face. "What happened?" A panic washed over me.

"A coup."

"A coup?"

Avaric confirmed it with a look. "About three years ago." He looked down at the ground, trying to recall old memories. "For about a year before that, she'd been taking these visits to the northeast quite often, and one of her cabinet members who went with her from time to time accused her of conspiring with an enemy of the state. It was quite the scandal at the time. To accuse Glinda, the Good, to be conspiring with an enemy of Oz. It quieted down for a while, because no one believed that Glinda was doing anything nefarious. I mean, Oz had no enemies and Glinda was Good. Is Good."

"Thanks." Avaric handed me a larger glass.

"Around the new year everyone was completely shocked when Glinda made an announcement that she was pregnant and would be stepping down from her position to focus on her family life. She left Oz's fate in the hands of that cabinet member who made the accusations. Oz, of course, bought it up. I even bought it until she and I got to talking at your parents' Lurlinemas Gala the following year. She said he wanted her out and wanted her out as soon as possible. Threatened to take in and kill her conspirator. You know, Glin, she complied to keep up appearances..." Avaric paused as if something just occurred to him. "All she wanted to keep was some silly book." Another pause. "Anyway, Ozians still love her to bits; but things have changed. So much."

"Who was the cabinet member?"

Avaric bit his lip before answering, "Master Morrible."

"_Master _Morrible?" I nearly spat the drink out.

"Come on, now, Fiyero." Avaric whispered, nervously glancing about as if someone could overhear us. "As ugly as the old hag is, you don't think she was completely alone, did you?" Honestly? Yes. "She was in South Stairs up until Master Morrible staged that coup. Now she's in charge. It's civil war out there." I recalled what the traveler we met at the mines had said. "The rebels and the Gale Force are always fighting in some part of Oz. Right now most of their fights are here in the north. The rebels are those opposed to the Morribles' rule. We're far and few; but we're strong." Avaric assured me.

"We met someone who said the rebels snatch up immigrants and emigrants fleeing to Quox." Liir told Avaric.

He sighed, "Yeah." Avaric sent another glance about the room. "Animals mostly. We take the immigrants to settlements that are safe. They usually move on from the main one with special underground travel groups. The emigrants..." He groaned. "Fall under some unfortunate political rules." He finished vaguely. "Better us catch them than Horrible Morrible."

"She's the one people refer to as Her High Sorceress?" Liir asked.

Avaric nodded. "She was Head Mistress when your parents and I were in school." He told Liir then turned to me. "She's picking up where the Wizard left of. With much more vindication, though. She's got something to prove, and she does not mind stepping on a few Animals to do it. Most of them are fleeing north to the Bad Lands or Ugabu. Some are lucky to come across the Animal developments protected for the next twenty years under a proclamation done by Glinda, but most have gone back into hiding." I wonder if my wife knew. "Glinda did a lot to make up for the Wizard's restrictions. You guys would be proud."

"She's still alive, isn't she?" I was almost afraid to hear the answer.

He waved his hand nonchalantly. "Oh, of course, with a beautiful set of twins. Boy and a girl. Cutest little tykes you've ever seen." I doubted that. "The only reason Horrible Morrible hasn't offed her yet is because of that book. Master Morrible promised it to Glinda in a binding contract; so his wife can't touch it until the spell dies. Glinda said a friend taught her how to make it so Morrible will never get her hands on it. Not that Morrible knows." Avaric stared at me hard. I shifted uncomfortably a little, what was his deal? "Say, which direction are you boys traveling from?"

Liir answered first, "The northeast."

"Yeah but-" I stopped talking. "You think...you don't think that...four years ago Glinda started taking the trips?"

"Mama started taking her walks four years ago." Liir said what Avaric and I were thinking.

"Is Glinda in the north right now?" I asked hopefully.

Avaric took his hand away from his mouth to answer, "No..." He replied, not sounding confident with it. "She...uhm...she and the twins don't stay in one place for too long. I think," Avaric closed his eyes as he thought. "I think her husband said- Oz, what did he say?" Avaric looked up to the ceiling and then his mouth dropped open. "In the Vinkus. Glinda's staying in with your mother in whichever castle you people populate."

"My mother?"

"Yes," Everything seemed to be coming back to him. "Yes, your mother needs a Regent until the Princess is old enough to inherit the throne. Riots have been plentiful since you...died. She's considering Glinda since you very well can't rule. Or your son." He added with a glance at Liir.

"Are you king of the Vinkus, daddy?" Liir turned his full attention to me again, this time more sure of what he had heard. His eyes were sharp and boring into me while his tone was some mix of disgust and cynicism. It felt like I'd been caught in a lie by his mother.

"No." I shook my head, sipping a good amount of alcohol. "I'm kind of a prince."

"How can you be kind of a prince?" Liir frowned at me like I'd just kicked Baumer. "Is it kind of a thone? In kind of a castle? In kind of a kingdom?" Avaric was amused by Liir's tone to no end.

"I'm the prince." I corrected myself, sending Liir a side glance. "I would have been king if I hadn't, uhm, well, died."

"Can't you be king once we find mama?"

"It won't be that easy, kid." Avaric answered and I nodded in agreement.

"Why?"

"Bug, I haven't seen my mother in almost eight years. Last time I saw her, I was engaged and high on the social ladder. She thinks I'm dead."

"Well, when we find mama, we'll go and show her you're alive. Wouldn't you want me to tell you I'm not dead if you thought I was and I wasn't."

I opened my mouth to say something, but what would I say? I looked at Avaric for help. Reading my unspoken pleas, he pulled open one of his desk drawers and pulled out an old newspaper. Liir laid the broom in his lap and snatched the paper from Avaric. This wasn't how I wanted Liir finding out. It was inevitable now, though, in our situation. His mother and I obviously hadn't planned this, so I was nowhere near prepared. How would he even react? Liir traced the word 'WICKED' with his finger as he looked at the headline. I knew he didn't understand all the words the newspaper had written, but he got the general idea. I mean, the title said it all. He didn't waste much time on the words, though. He was too taken by the picture of his mother in the middle of the page. She was young, beautiful, and passionate.

"They thought mama was dead?" Liir asked in such a soft voice.

"You remember what happened, what you did last year when that man at the market hit mama?" I knelt in front of Liir and squeezed his knee reassuringly. Liir nodded slowly, glancing nervously at Avaric. "Remember how mama and I told you it happened because you've got magic in you?" Another slow nod. "Mama's just like you. And people around here didn't take to mama. They don't like green very much."

"Isn't there a whole city of green?" Liir's voice had a strange bitterness to it.

"Ironically." Avaric snorted.

"People don't like you're mother very much, Liir." I kissed his small hand.

I could see the tears forming in his eyes as a question formed in his mind. Do you know how painful that is? To see your son on the verge of tears and not know what to do because you don't know what's bringing them on...I'd rather be stabbed.

"Is mama bad, daddy?"

"No, baby!" I took both of his hands in mine and kissed them each before cupping his face.

"You lied about being the prince, how do I know you're not lying about mama?" He snapped.

"The mama you know is your mama. How can someone so bad make someone so good?" I kissed his forehead and pulled him against me in a tight hug. At first he thrashed about in my grip, but eventually Liir wrapped his arms around my neck and sobbed into the crook of it. "You don't listen to these silly papers. The people who wrote them thrive off of rumours to make a living. Your mama is no more bad than you are, okay?" Liir nodded into my neck.

After a while he pulled away and wiped his tears on the back of his sleeve before turning to Avaric, "Can I keep this, please?"

"Of course."

"My mama looks pretty." He explained without needing to.

"Your mama is beautiful." Avaric and I assured him.

Liir grinned sheepishly.

Iago came to fetch Liir and I some time after Avaric and I had started recounting the charades we had gotten ourself into at Shiz. Liir had just sat in the chair looking at the picture of his mother, trying to comprehend what the words on the paper weren't telling him. See, all his mother. Anyway, Iago led us down the hall and onto the first floor to a beautiful room that reminded me so much of home in the Vinkus. The servant bowed and left us to settle until dinner.

The maroon-colored walls were high, the cieling plated with some gold-colored metal that had been weaved into an intricate design. I stared up at it with fascination. We weren't even in the bedroom. It was just the sitting room. Two dark wood doors were situated at the far end of the room. Liir followed me into the first room. The bedroom wasn't much of a color contrast. It was a dark blue color. The bed was covered in thickly padded white sheets with linings and designs to match the room's walls. My wife would have loved this room. I pressed a hand against the cool wall. It was deceivingly smooth. Stopping my wandering short in the bedroom, I lead Liir into the bathroom before I could completely crash on the inviting bed.

"What's that?" Liir pointed to the shower.

"It's a shower." I mumbled, sniffing the scents in the bathroom. "You stand under it and turn the knobs, then the water comes out of the faucet."

"And you stand?" He seemed so puzzled by the idea.

I laughed, "Yes, silly boy. It's more environmentally friendly, and it's much quicker."

"Less time than a bath." Liir mused.

"Exactly."

"I wish we had showers back home."

"You and me both, kid." I squeezed his shoulder.

"Are there showers in the castles in the Vinkus?"

"In some of the rooms."

"Huh." He nodded, his mind processing something he obviously had no intention of sharing.

"Why don't you stay here for a moment," I started and took off my locket before handing it to him. "I need to go talk to Avaric for a moment, alright?" Liir took the locket and walked out of the bathroom with me. I headed towards the door when he sat on the floor with his mother's broom, trying to no avail to piece it together.

The door wouldn't open. I jiggled the knob. I pushed it. I pulled it. The door wouldn't open. My heart rate picked up and I could hear the blood rushing out of my body. That son of a bitch. I repeated everything again. Okay, keep calm. I breathed in deeply then out, reaching for me knife to pick the lock. Without catching Liir's attention, I managed to slip from the room after picking the lock. Out in the hall I paused and listened for any sign of movement. The house was still. Not the good kind either.

I kept an eye out for the servants as I walked the length of the first floor, watching out the windows to see the landscape. The stables were conveniently in the same direction Liir and I would need to bolt to if Avaric had done what I was thinking he had. I could see Baumer drinking water from a water trough. His saddle was off, but the bridle and reigns were still attached. Good enough. I could ride perfectly fine bareback. Baumer only had them because his owner didn't know the first thing about riding.

"...to be fetched before dinner if you don't mind." I heard Avaric's voice from outside his door. He was talking to someone else in the room, but I could only make out Avaric's replies. I stopped and listened. "I believe he's sick...yes...quickly...He says he's the crowned prince of the Vinkus...don't you think I know what...best friend...There's a boy with him, too...I have them locked in a room right now...of course...I'll see-"

I didn't stick around for Avaric to finish the sentence. That stupid prick! How could he not know it's me? I took the stairs two at a time. Who else would have known all those stories about our days at Shiz? Who else would have known about my first night there? I hadn't even told my wife about that! I grunted as I flung myself into the room Liir and I had been previously locked in. Why not have me arrested on spot? How was leading me on beneficial to anyone? How did he think I was anyone else but myself? I told him everything! Liir looked up at me when I came back in, out of breath. His eyes were wide with worry.

"We have to go." I panted, fumbling to do the buttons of his cloak.

"Why?"

"One of the servants alerted the authorities." I lied. I didn't need Liir losing hope in humanity yet. "Come on," I grabbed his hand after he stuffed the newspaper in his satchel and tucked the broom bits under his arm.

It wasn't necessary at all, but I busted the window in the bedroom out for Liir and I to climb out of. I could have opened it like the design intended to, but you could call it my parting gift for my dearest and best friend. Liir and I sprinted for the Baumer. No one was after us, but I didn't want to stick around long enough for them to see the dust we'd kick up. I didn't even want our scent lingering in the air. We could follow the Gillikin River all the way to Kiamo Ko and stay there for a bit before heading to my mother's favorite castle.

I was going home.

**So? Do you think Avaric was really alerting the authorities? Or was Fiyero jumping the gun? Leave your thoughts in a review:) Seven? ;)**


	7. Day Seventeen

**Thank you! You guys make me so happy and smiley:)**

**So the jumps between most chapters are pretty big at times; but once they get out of the north, days will be closer together. **

**Disclaimer: No...:(**

**Day Seventeen**

I had never been truly sick in my life. Even when I was a boy, my illnesses lasted a maximum of two days; and even then the ailment hardly kept me in bed except when the sun was down. I always figured it was because I was a royal, and royals were above silly things like colds. Although, thinking back on it, I'm sure I never got seriously ill because I was well taken care of. My immune system was in perfect condition. So it was Liir's mother who took care of all the medical things when it came to him. She was able to diagnose him off the bat, buy the right herbs to help him, and knew how long to keep him relaxed until he was well again. She wasn't here, though, so the responsibility was now mine, and I felt like I was failing her and him. We'd been doing great so far, I didn't think we would face poor health any time before we found her. Shock and panic didn't begin to describe how I felt when Liir passed out from something I couldn't diagnose two after we escaped from Avaric's.

I stood in the shadows as the old bat worked over Liir's weak body. She was quick and efficient in her work. It only took her ten minutes to get in the room, do what she needed to do, and then scamper out like she agreed on. He'd been complaining of a sore throat and stomach aches the entire time leading up to the incident. But I passed it off as nothing more than Liir doing what he always did. He hadn't eaten a decent meal in a while, which explained the stomach aches. And fluid was becoming more scarce for us to obtain, so I felt that explained the sore throat, too. Why would I think it was anything more than that? At night he would have random bouts where he would wake up shaking uncontrollably. The chill night air. Coughing spells. The environment. There was a logical explanation to everything. Of course, apparently the universe was against me, because obviously all the logical explanations were not the right explanations.

"Thank you." I whispered as the woman made to leave the room, picking up her coin off the dresser as she passed me.

We had been within miles of Brox Hall, so that's where I had to go to get help. I couldn't go back and risk running into someone who might have been looking for us. The old maid taking care of him was in the second house I came to. Leaving Liir and Baumer under the cover of the trees on the perimeter of the town, I told the woman that my son was sick, and I needed her help. She was wary at first, but her heart melted when I brought Liir over. He had been limp in my arms, the sight of sure death. She took us in instantly. She didn't ask questions about who we were, where we were coming from or going. She just gave us her back room while she tended to Liir's illness. Baumer was tied up in the back, not forgotten but not my priority right now.

"His fever is going down." She told me softly. "I'd give it another four days before you could get back to your travels."

It was influenza that had him. She assured me that he would be well, and that he was probably suffering as much as he was because he was malnourished. I tried to tell her that we hadn't the funds to keep ourselves nourished, but she had just waved her hand in nonchalance, as if she understood. She brought us bread and water after her own family ate, nothing big, but it was more than we had in days. Liir nibbled when he was awake, but he slept most of the days away. The old woman also understood that we weren't there. The way she so readily accepted the possibility that we were fugitives made me think that she was use to this. Like all of Oz was on the run from something.

"I truly can't thank you enough." I said. "I was wondering if you knew much about current events?" I added.

The old lady glanced back at Liir before laying a wrinkled hand on my arm, "Come have a night cap with my husband and me in a little bit. I'll knock." She patted my arm and left me alone with Liir.

"Daddy." Liir's broken voice cut through the silence a while later.

"I'm here, bug." I leaned forward from my spot next to him and grabbed his hand. "I'm here."

"Mama's alive." He said as a soft knock came from the other side of the door.

"I know she is, bug." I kissed his temple.

He sent me a side glance before his eye lids started drooping again. "No, I mean, I really know she's alive. I saw her. In my dream. We're going to find her." He yawned.

"Get some sleep, I'm going to talk with the old woman, okay?" I took off my locket and put it around his neck.

The old woman's husband was a big, lumbering man. Where she had mostly blonde hair with streaks of grey, he had lost all his color and supported a completely white mane. His eyes were bright and blue like his wife's, but held a boyish charm and humor to them. The wrinkles at the corner of his eyes and lips told more of a story than he could ever verbally express. I calmed down at the sight of him. The old woman ushered me into their front room, on the chair across from her husband, as she set herself to serving the night caps. I sat quietly, watching the both of them. She moved so gracefully, even in her old age, and I couldn't help but think how similar to Glinda she moved. Grace must have been a Gillikin thing. I had yet to meet a native who was clutzy. Grace came with class in the Vinkus.

"Where are you headed?" The husband asked once his wife was settled into the seat next to him.

"Forgive me, but I'd feel much more comfortable not saying." I said carefully. They nodded, not questioning my motives. "How do you...er...how do you identify yourselves as?"

"Sir, do you think we would have taken you in if we anything but rebels?" The rebel winked at me in good nature. I calmed down even more. "Now do you mind if I'm frank?" I shook my head. "Please, do not fear, we mean you no harm, and we want to do whatever we can to help you, because we think we know what you're after; but we know who you are."

I tensed up again, ready to snatch Liir and bolt.

"If you run, you'll only make a scene."

The old woman seemed to read my thoughts. Though, I can't say I was too good at hiding them. She dug through a drawer in the table between us and handed over a black and white photo. My breath caught in my throat, and I slumped into the chair. Well, I'll be damned. Liir was right. I stared down at the picture of my wife, who was glaring into the camera. Her hair was in tangles, dirt blotched her sullen face, her eyes told the everyone the resentment she held towards whomever was behind the camera. Anyone looking at the picture who have assumed that she was a normal woman who people needed to be on the look out for, but I knew who she was. I knew her. Every scar and hair on her body. The photo left out her unique pigmentation, so I guessed that it was meant to be left out. To keep from alarming anyone too much. I took a moment away from gaping at the photo and looked to the elderly couple watching me as I studied the photo.

"It was given to all the rebels in the area." The man said. "We have ties in the Gale Force, and this picture was taken from them and given to us. She'd made it out of their control by the time we got this photo. We were told to keep an eye out for her." His wife nodded in agreement. "Through the grapevine, we heard that if a man and his son came around, take them in as associates."

"We never thought that we'd be the ones." The old maid said. "Nor that they'd be her kin."

It was strange. More like baffling, listening to them talk about me as if the past was not an issue to them. As if this type of thing was completely normal to them. They didn't question how I had made it out alive; they didn't question how my wife was alive; and they didn't question how we had come to the point we were at. It worried me that people like them were on the watch for Liir and me. Not only was the Gale Force keeping an eye out; but now I had to worry about their opponents, too? It was too many eyes to evade. If Oz needed a common enemy, I was not going to aid either side in giving the people one. No matter who I thought was right, none of them were working for the well-being of my child. There is no such thing as a kind heart when it came to politics. Even this couple. They weren't helping because they were genuinely nice. They were helping because they would have the chance to say they helped the witch's family. They would be well known in their circle. It made me sick.

"So she was captured?" I asked, neither confirming nor denying our kinship.

"Of course, all we hear are rumors; but supposedly she was captured on the northeastern Ozian border, and she escaped not long after that. As far as we know, she isn't aware that anyone with a personal tie is after her. We've been told to leave a candle on the back porch if we're friend or foe; so far no one as had her as company." And no one ever would, I thought as my eyes found a cabinet full of bottles of herbs. "Where do you think she's headed?"

"You know more than I do, I assure you." I told them.

"We assumed she was going to the Vinkus to find Lady Glinda." The old man lowered his voice. "But that would be the obvious idea, wouldn't it?" I gazed at him. "If you ask me, El-"

"Don't say her name!" I snapped before I could stop myself. They looked at me with alarm. I cleared my throat awkwardly, "Sorry." I apologized without adding an explanation.

The old man eyed me oddly but went on, "She's going back to where it all began."

No she wasn't. Because _that _would be the obvious choice. She was going to the Vinkus, that much I was sure of. I doubted it was to find Glinda, but I knew that the Vinkus was her intention. I thanked the couple for the refreshment before excusing myself to go back to Liir. He was snoring lightly but sleeping soundly. I waited over an hour for the old maid and her husband to fall asleep before sneaking back into the room and taking a few herbs from her cabinet. We needed to get out of there. Who knew how many people were aware we were residing here. At least if we left now, we could be far away when word got out that we were gone. We'd at least have eight hours head start. Baumer could ride through the night. We could probably make it to Tenniken by tomorrow night. I knew there were groves around there that we could hide under until the rest of Liir's sickness passed. But we had to leave.

"Liir," I picked him up slowly as not to frighten him. He stirred and groaned, his body protesting the movement. "I'm going to climb out the window and then pull you out after me, okay? I need you to stand here." I set him in the place I needed him to be. "Can you do that for me?" Liir nodded sleepily.

"Did they tell on us, daddy?"

"No, bug." I whispered, grunting as I pulled myself over and out the window. "I think I know where mama's going." I added as I beckoned for him.

Liir stopped and stared at me. "Really?"

"Yes, really. We're going to beat her there." I pulled him out and held him as I tip-toed over to Baumer. The horse threw his head in recognition but calmed when Liir was sitting on his back comfortably.

"To the Vinkus?"

"Yep."

"Why?"

"It's her ticket home."

**Oh, if only going straight to the Vinkus was that simple ;) Also, anything the boys hear about Elphaba is purely speculation. The only truth is that she was captured and escaped. Everything else is rebels assuming one thing or another.**

**Next chapter: Liir's first encounter with a familiar Animal...any guesses who?:) Let me know in a review! See you in eight?**


	8. Day Twenty One

**Hello! Sorry it's been a while since I updated. I had this chapter written a different way, but I changed it around. College is crazy. **

**Disclaimer:...no...**

_**Day Twenty One**_

"We need to talk."

I looked up from the article I was reading out of the newspaper that rat bastard gave Liir. The six year old was standing above me with his hands on his hips and a serious expression on his face. His nose was still stuffed, so the foreboding tone he was trying to accomplish fell short because of the nasal quality to his voice. But I humored him and set the paper aside to give him my attention. I waved to the ground in front of me welcomingly, but he chose to stay standing to keep the height advantage over me. This was supposed to be a serious talk, and he obviously wanted to be in control of it. His mother would do the same thing. Catch me while I was sitting in bed or on the couch. As if the extra few inches made all the difference. She joked that she would turn me into a scarecrow again just so she could have some advantage over me...I never found it very funny.

"Am I in trouble?" I asked, only half joking.

"I'll think about it." He said solemnly, finally deciding to sit down. His recuperation didn't allow much time on his feet. "So I've had a lot of time to think about things from the past few days."

"You've been sleeping a lot."

"With good reason."

I nodded.

"I want to know about mama." He said, drawing a line in the dirt. "I mean, everyone is saying all these things about her. The newspaper is saying she's wicked, that Avaric called her the Wicked Witch of the West, and you said the mama I know is who my mama really is. But I've never known mama to be wicked. What makes the paper say she's wicked? Why are we keeping a low cover? What happened? What made you leave Oz?"

"Well," I paused, trying to decide how to go about this. "well..." I trailed off at a murmur from somewhere in the trees.

Liir heard it, too. We huddled close to the trunk of the tree as the sound came again. Something rustled. Something went 'thud'. And something moved the branches to shake the leaves. I muttered for Liir to stay put. Not even a breath later, I could have sworn something like 'put, pat, pot' came from whatever was refusing to show itself. Liir took the locket when I offered it to him. There was more rustling as I stood quietly, waiting to hear which direction the noise was going. It almost seemed to be going around us. In circles. Like a predator stalking it's prey. I shot a glance back at Liir to make sure he was still there. He looked around nervously as whatever was circling us grew louder. Another string of words: 'hush, lush, shush'.

"Hello?" I called uncertainly.

"Hello, fellow, mellow." The same voice that had been saying the strings of words said again.

"A Vinkan?" Another voice asked. Some more rustling before the voices appeared to my right.

The six year old sitting against the tree let out a scream of shock and ran over to me. He wrapped his arms around me, burying his face into my side as our company stared at us from a distance. I could feel my mouth stand agape as I witnessed the sight in front of me. It was like I was looking at a ghost. I couldn't believe that I was seeing! If my wife was here...The more loquacious of the two watched me with the same look I was giving him. Absent-mindedly, I brought a hand to my face. Was I not as different as I thought? If I was so easily recognized by some people then I must have looked more like my old self than I thought. Or maybe it was my eyes. They were specific to my heritage and hadn't been changed in the transformation.

"...kan, tan, man." The Monkey said. Sorry, the _winged _Monkey.

The Goat next to him sent his companion a look before taking an uneasy step forward. Liir let out a cry, hearing the leaves crunch under his hooves. I squeezed the boy's shoulder reassuringly.

"Dr. Dillamond?" I tried. The Goat stiffened, and I knew it was him. I would have known him anywhere, but I thought...well, I don't know what I thought had happened to him ultimately; but I certainly hadn't thought I would ever run into him again. Dragging Liir with me, I moved forward a few more steps for the Goat to get a better look at me. "Dr. Dillamond?" I repeated. The Goat blinked, and I took it as a sign of acknowledgement. "Fiyero Tiggular." I added in a hushed voice.

"Master Tiggular?" He seemed skeptical.

"My wife is handy with magic." I said.

"Your wife?"

I nodded.

"Master Tiggular." The Goat mused before his eyes flickered down to the cowering Liir. "And young Master Tiggular?"

"Yes." I confirmed, taking a few more steps. The Goat and his companion added a few more steps.

"I thought you were dead." Liir muttered something into my cloak after Doctor Dillamond's words, but not even the most skilled Vinkan listener would have heard him.

"She saved me." I told him. "I thought you were speechless."

"Not for the past six years."

"Years, tears, fears."

"This is Chistery." Doctor Dillamond introduced his companion.

"Chistery?" I heard stories about him. She was quite fond of him. Although, she failed to mention that he had actually accomplished speech. I wished she was here for yet another reason. "How long has he been talking?"

Doctor Dillamond stared at me cautiously for another moment, "Since she died, I'm told." He perked up and looked around, "Is she here?" He asked hopefully.

"No." Liir sniffed loud enough for the Goat to here.

"But she's alive?" He seemed relieved.

"We're looking for her." I told him. "Our son and I." I shook Liir's tight grip off and presented him to Dr. Dillamond. "Liir, Dr. Dillamond is very big influence in your mama's life. He taught history back at school." Liir gaped at the Goat. Oh, yeah. This was his first encounter with an Animal. I mentioned that to Dillamond, who nodded in understanding. "We've never seen an Animal in the Bad Lands. And for whatever reason, she never told him about them."

"What-" Doctor Dillamond started but Chistery cut him off. The Monkey held his hand out to Liir, who stared back at him uncertainly before taking it hesitantly, causing the Monkey to exclaim excitedly. Liir had a look of complete horror mixed with utmost curiosity on his face at the Monkey's action. The Goat simply shot his companion a look but went on, "You don't use her name?"

"Names aren't important at home." Liir answered as he attempted to get his hand back from the old Monkey.

"But you're in Oz, young Master Tiggular." Liir frowned up at the Goat. Honorifics weren't used much in the Bad Lands either. Oz was turning out to be quite the culture shock for Liir.

"And you're a talking goat." Liir retorted. Both Doctor Dillamond and I corrected his mispronunciation. And just like his mother would, neither of them keen on being corrected, he sneered at each of us before rounding on Doctor Dillamond. "How can you talk? Are you magicked? Were you born that way?"

"The age old questions." Doctor Dillamond sighed.

"I beg your pardon, sir, but what are you doing out here?" I asked as Liir managed to retract his hand. Chistery looked defeated. I wondered if the Monkey saw Liir's mother in the boy. Could he pick out the features that belonged to her, and was that the reason why he seemed to take an instant liking to him? I figured it was (because Liir's oh-so-warm personality certainly couldn't be the reason), but didn't want to press my knowledge on a subject where all I could do was assume.

"Lady Glinda." He answered and needn't further explain. "There's an Animal village just up the river." He tossed his head back. "We were just out for a walk. Sometimes Chistery gets overwhelmed with all the words others can say, but he can only ramble off of." The doctor looked dejectedly at his friend. "Our stories are believable, though. What of yours? You two were dead, everyone knew it! I don't understand."

"You said the Animal village is just up the river?"

"Yes..."

"I will give you all the information you want to know in return for a night's food and shelter. The boy is recovering from the flu, and we haven't eaten in three days."

I told Dr. Dillamond everything he needed to know from running away with his star pupil to her being missing for the past few weeks. Liir kept Chistery entertained in the front room of Dr. Dillamond's cottage as the Goat and I conversed in the back. The door was propped open so Liir could keep his eye on me, his fear that I'd go missing too not yet gone. Dr. Dillamond listened with complete fascination to everything. He was thrilled to know we were both okay, baffled to know we were together, and relieved to know that we had been making good for ourselves up until she went missing. I knew I was never his favorite student. I didn't listen in class, I constantly made a mockery of the tests he gave, and I never took him seriously until after he was gone. But to know he was eased by me being alive and well was comforting.

The village he lived in was more secluded than I would have imagined for being full of Animals. It was almost deserted. Dr. Dillamond had explained that most of the Animals were traveling underground to get to safer villages, because Master Morrible and his Horrible Morrible were starting their plans in the north. When I asked what the plans were, Dr. Dillamond just shrugged. He said that there had been no official proclamation, but he'd seen more Gale Forcers out and about throughout the north than he ever saw when he was held captive in the Palace. So most of the Animals left in his village were the ones who were not capable of making such long journeys as from age or some other ailment.

"He has her nose." The Goat pointed out some time later when Liir had fallen asleep under the Monkey's watchful eye. Chistery sat perched on the arm of the couch Liir was asleep on, his gaze never leaving the boy. "And hair." He added as an after thought.

"It's been beneficial in our travels." I muttered. "He has mostly traits found among Vinkans, so it's easy to pass him off as one born in the west."

"Except for his accent."

"We've made it this far." I shrugged.

"Have you run into any trouble?"

I contemplated telling him about the Gale Forcers keeping an eye out for us, about the rat bastard and his skewed loyalties, and about the questionable rebels who think they know a thing or two. But I didn't. Just because my wife would have put her entire life in his hands- hooves, didn't mean I was quite ready to. He already knew about the past, why did he deserve to know the present? So I shook my head. Maybe he was trustworthy. Maybe he would have been able to help if I had let him know what was going on. I just needed him for food and shelter to get us through the night, though. We'd be on our way at dawn tomorrow, hopefully before he and the Monkey arose. If I let him and Liir get to talking, we'd be here for days. I knew it. We had more important matters, though. I'm sure Dr. Dillamond would understand. Oz, he'd probably do the same thing if he was in my position. No harm. No foul.

"Why aren't names important in the Bad Lands?" The Goat asked me, probably recalling Liir's earlier comment. "How much different is it than Oz?"

I laughed softly, thinking of everything that differed. What wasn't different was the better question. "To have a name is to hold power." I told him, trying to remember how things were explained to me. "Doctor, Master, Miss, Madame, Queen, Prince...honorifics and names, they show a system of material and hierarchy. There, you are what you do. The Butcher, the Tax Collector, the Farmer in plot thirteen...everyone contributes to the community equally, so there's no social ladder. The Blacksmith is no better than the old woman who quilts, nor is she better than the family who grows and harvests fruit."

"It sounds lovely." He said seriously.

I nodded. "It was safe."

"I understand why names aren't used in the Bad Lands, but why won't you refer to her now?" I stared at the Goat wearily. "Obviously there's something deeper when all you're capable of is using pronouns to refer to her." He seemed to sense my aversion to the topic, so instead of pressing it, he moved on. "Where will you go if you find her?" He paused. "When you find her." He corrected himself, and I felt a strange relief at that.

"I'm not really sure." I admitted. "I'm more concerned at finding my wife." Doctor Dillamond nodded in understanding. "It seems like it's been an eternity."

I felt my throat starting to constrict as I pictured her. The way her hair flowed down her back. The wave it held when she would shake it out of the braid that bound it all day. How adorably messy it was after she woke up in the morning. All of her looks. The half smile that would creep onto her face when I'd say something she didn't quite find funny but didn't find it dull either. Or the smug smirk she would get when Liir or I would do something she advised us not to, and we'd pay the consequences. The rare giggle. The small smile of uncertainty or self-consciousness. I blinked hard a few times and looked back at my son to clear my head.

"Do you know where you're going?"

"I think she's headed to the Vinkus." I told him, my voice hoarse.

"Once you find her, come back." He said softly. I looked away from Liir. "Here, I mean. Come back, refuel, and we'll come up with a plan. I have a room you three can sleep in. I have plenty of food to give you your strength back. Books. We can figure out your futures."

It was awfully tempting but..."I need to go home." I said. "My mother." I shook my head clear of the emotions bubbling. "I need to go home to my mother. She lost my father. She shouldn't have to be kept under the assumption that I'm gone, too."

"You're just going to show up?

"Yes." I know, it probably wasn't the best plan. But you tell me another way.

"Don't you think the shock of seeing her long-thought-dead son waltz into her castle will kill her?" He hadn't said it in a rough way, but it processed in my mind that way. I wanted my mother to be relieved to see me. Although, now that I was talking it through with someone, it made more sense. "If you stay here a little while longer, I'd be more than happy to work out a plan with you."

I didn't even ponder it. I wasn't staying in any place longer than I needed to. What I needed was to find my wife. To give my son solace that she's alive and well. I didn't need to think of a plan, to nurture my health, or anything like that. I had a boy to worry about. His mental health was at the front of my mind. Wounds can heal, hunger and thirst can be quenched, but the pain from not having his mother will only increase. It'll never fade. And if we don't find her, neither of us will forgive me.

"The last person I trusted sold me out." I told him as an act of refusal.

Liir's sudden appearance caught me off guard. I'll never admit it, but I nearly jumped out of my skin. "I want to stay." He had said to make himself known. I frowned at my son as he stood uncertainly in the doorway. He cleared his throat and then entered the room, a sense of confidence visibly washing over him. The Monkey followed in his wake. "I want to stay and hear what you have to say." Liir climbed into my lap. It was such a contrast to the newfound attitude he had taken. Mature and brave enough to speak his mind, but still that little boy who wants to sit in his father's lap.

"Liir," I tried reasoning. "The longer we stay off the road, the longer we're away from your mother."

But he shook his head. "Master Dillamond," He said, incorrectly using honorifics. "Knows mama. Maybe he can provide some information about her that even you don't know about." I'm not going to lie and say that his comment didn't bruise my ego a little, but I knew he was right. I knew my wife, but the Goat was familiar with another side of her that I had only glimpsed.

"Well..."

My son turned some, so he could see me and Dr. Dillamond at the same time. "The longer we search blindly, the longer we're away from mama. We have no clue what's going on around us, only what we pick up from uneducated travelers. If Master Dillamond knows anymore than Glinda Upland is in the Vinkus, we're in luck."

Dr. Dillamond stared at Liir, if he had doubted Liir's parentage before, the connection from mother to son obvious. "Your mother would be so proud of you." The Goat conceded with a nod of his head.

Liir shook his head, "Mama is going to be proud of me."

**I was going to have them up and leave in the middle of the night, but I really want Liir to form a relationship with Doctor Dillamond. And I'm kind of excited to write the transition between cultures he's going to go through in the next couple chapters. That being said, the next two chapters after this one will be in Liir's POV. I'll say it again at the start of the chapters, but just forewarning.**

**Anyway, what did you think? Review and let me know!:) **


	9. Day Twenty Two

**Yeah, so this kind of deviates from the original plan I had for this chapter but no big deal. **

**A few things:**

**The first part is in Liir's POV, and the second is back to Fiyero's. It'll be the only POV switch in the fic.**

**I'm sorry in advanced for something that happens in this chapter.**

**And lastly, I really hope you all like Liir's narrative. I tried mixing just enough Elphaba and Fiyero but also some uniqueness.**

**_Day Twenty Two_**

The goat—sorry _Goat_—walked around the small room he called a kitchen. I wouldn't really call it that. There wasn't any stove or fridge. He had a cabinet full of cans and a cool box filled with vegetables. In the corner there were a bunch of bananas and other fruits placed in hanging bowls. The room was half the size of our kitchen at home, so just me being in here with him made the room crowded. Well, me and Chistery. He hadn't left my side since we got here. I didn't mind him so much, he just took some time to get use to.

I didn't understand everything so much. At all, really. I mean, I was coming to understand what to say, how to say it, and when to say it. But why? Why was the Goat a Goat and not a Goat? And why was the Monkey a Monkey but not really a Monkey or a monkey anymore? Why was it they were able to talk but not Baumer? Why was the Goat called Dr. Dillamond but not Master Dillamond? Why was daddy Master Tiggular? If daddy was Master Tiggular, why was I also Master Tiggular? How could we both be one person? It just doesn't make sense. Why can't we call daddy Prince Tiggular and me Master Tiggular? I know he's supposed to be dead and everything, but what am I supposed to do if someone yells 'Master Tiggular'? Which one of us answers? The more time we spent in this Oz, the less I was fond of it.

"What's on your mind, Master Tiggular?" _Doctor _Dillamond asked me as he cleaned his hooves.

I stared at him for a moment. I couldn't believe he could talk.

"Where's my dad?" I asked him, fingering the locket I found next to me when I woke up. I didn't really want to tell him what I was actually thinking.

"Out with your horse." He told me. "Something caused him to get all riled up, so Master Tiggular went to sooth him. He should be back soon." I glanced out the window but didn't see anything but the house down the road. "How old are you?"

"Six."

"Do you go to school?"

"No."

"Can you read?"

"Yes."

"Did your mother teach you?"

"Yes."

"Would you like to read some of her essays from my class?"

I opened my mouth and shut it. "You have something of hers?" I asked hopefully. All I had was her broken broom, the old newspaper, and the list of castles in the Vinkus in her handwriting. "Can I see them? Please." I added after a breath.

Dr. Dillamond wiped his hooves on a towel on the counter and beckoned me to follow him. I pulled the locket over my head and hurried after the Goat as he lead me into a room off of the living room. It was bigger than the kitchen but smaller than my room at home. A desk was shoved into the corner and all the other walls were lined with rows and rows of books. I gaped. Mama would love this room. I looked over the books on one of the rows while the Goat dug through a drawer of the desk. Some of the words were in a language I didn't recognize, but most of them looked like things that mama would have spent days reading.

She used to tell me stories about all the books of Oz. They have these things called libraries where you can read all and any books you want, and you don't have to pay. I want to go to a library someday. Daddy and mama never talk much on it, but I know we can barely afford what mama once called the price of living. But you don't have to have money to go to a library, mama says. You can read all day. And you get free water. I think I would like a library very much. Daddy says that's how he knows I'm truly mama's son. Mama says she knows I'm her son because she remembers how she felt while and after she pushed me out. I don't know what she means by that. I'm told I don't want to either.

The Goat pulled out some papers that were rolled together and tied with twine. How did he tie it? Tying things with fingers was hard enough. I frowned at his hooves. I bet he didn't tie it. Maybe the Monkey did. I looked in Chistery's direction. No, no. He was too stupid to tie anything. See? Nothing in this Oz makes sense.

"Thank you." I muttered, taking the essays from him and backing out of the room.

"Your mother was my best student, Master Liir." He told me as we sat in his living room, reading over mama's old essays.

"What did you teach?"

"History."

"Real or fake history?"

The Goat laughed, "I wasn't aware that there was more than one type of history."

"Sure," I nodded, looking up from one of her essays. "Mama once told me of a place where people believe all sorts of things that aren't true, and they call it history."

"What's this place called?"

"Kansas."

He laughed again, bleating a little as he did. I froze in shock. He could talk _and _still be like a normal animal. I wondered if I pulled his tail would h scream or bleat. "I teach real history." He said "I will never teach you anything but the truth. How are we to know what not to repeat if we're hiding the truth to save our images?" I shook my head. "History never lies, Master Liir, people do. When you know the history, you know the truth."

"Was my mama good in history?"

"One of the best."

"I thought so, she's always harping on the past like she knows a thing or two." The Goat smiled at that, but my face fell as I played with the string of my shirt. "Is my mama wicked?"

"Oh, I don't believe there's any trace of wickedness to your mama." I glanced at him.

"You're only saying that because you know her."

"I'm saying that because I know the history."

"Dr. Dillamond," Daddy came back, interrupting us. I get in trouble when I interrupt. Was it because he used that thing called honorifics? Daddy looked dirtier than usual. "Can I have a moment?" Both of them glanced at me with funny expressions.

I stared down at mama's essay but watched the two of them, out of the corner of my eye, as they whispered to each other while walking into one of the back rooms of the house. As I was reading I made a decision. I wanted to find a library. Mama mentioned one in her essay, and I just needed to see what it was all about. Chistery was curled up on the couch across from me. He even stayed asleep when the door to the room daddy went into slammed. I stayed still for a moment. Daddy always said you never trust the first breath of silence. Everyone takes it and only a fool moves. On the third breath, though, I shot up and hurried to stuff the essays in my bag and went out of the open window.

Baumer showed little interest in me as I ran past him. He tossed his head but made no noise. Mama trained him that way. That way she could sneak outside in the middle of the night to do yard work, so daddy wouldn't have to do so much the next day. He always did a lot, and she never wanted to add more to his load than needed. Daddy would do the same thing for her when she went on her walks. When someone from a different plot came by asking if mama could do something for them, daddy would get it done in mama's absence. I don't think either of them knew what the other was doing. I did, though. It's what people in love do.

Dr. Dillamond's town was smaller than our community at home. Buildings were the smallest I'd seen in Oz so far. The people and Animals were nice enough. They tilted their hats, curtsied, or nodded at me. I grinned back at everyone, it's nice, I suppose.

"How do you do?" A man with a yellow hat greeted me as I stopped at an intersection. What do libraries look like?

"Fine." I said, turning a shoulder to him. "Sorry, sir." I apologized. He corrected me with 'Master'. I said sorry again. I forgot manners are of super importance. "I'm looking for the library."

The man with the yellow hat nodded, "It's a Monday." He waved his hand. Monday? There was so many things about Oz I didn't understand. "Which library are you looking for?"

There was more than one?

"The first one?"

The man with the yellow hat laughed. It reminded me of mama's laugh. It was strange. "We have three libraries here," He began to explain. I stared up at him. His hat was very bright. "The first one is all the way to the east: It mostly has fictional books. You know, leisure reading. The second," He nodded to the building across the street. "is full of arts, sciences, and political books. And the last one is all the way to the west, which contains public records and history books."

"Which one would have information on the Wicked Witch of the West?" I asked him.

His smile faded a bit. "Why would one so young be interested in something so ancient?"

"Even evil has a story, doesn't it?"

"Some are just born evil."

"I don't believe that."

"Just because you believe something doesn't make it true."

"How ironic." I said and started walking towards the west.

I glanced around nervously. What if someone slapped my hands with a switch for picking up a book? No one even looked in my direction. I didn't even know where I should have been starting. I went for the resources in the 'W' section but found hardly anything interesting after the clock hit two. I wondered if daddy and the Goat were looking for me.

"Hi." I didn't look up from the book I was reading about the Vinkus. I figured if I couldn't find anything on mama, I might as well do something. I wanted to know more about these castles anyway. Maybe the book would tell me why the royals needed so many of them. "That's a pretty locket." Before I even had a chance to tell the girl to leave, the locket was ripped from my neck.

"Hey!" I shouted, finally looking up. Oh man. A few old cods hushed me. "Give it back." I added in a quieter voice.

"You're a boy, why do you need a locket?" She asked.

"Didn't your mama ever teach you not to steal?" I tried grabbing for the locket.

"I don't have a mama." She said. "The Wicked Witch of the West killed her."

"No she didn't." I snapped.

"You tell that to my mama. She wrote me a letter, telling me that if she's not around to raise me, it's because the Witch killed her."

"Maybe your mama was just dumb."

The girl straightened up and gave me the same look mama gives daddy when he says something wrong. Well, I didn't say anything wrong. She shouldn't go around telling lies like that. If we were in the Bad Lands, she'd get a cut on her tongue just for that. It's true. One of the fruit harvesters has five cuts on his tongue from lying about produce five times. You'd think he'd have stopped after the first lie, but mama says he's awfully poor. Awfully stupid, if you ask me.

"My mama isn't dumb."

"You mean wasn't?" I corrected her. "She can't be much of anything right now but dead. Her body is probably all gross and smelly now. So you can say she stinks. Or she is gross, but you can't say she isn't dumb. Well, her brains may be all rotted by now. So if no brains means dumb, then yes: Your mama _is _dumb."

The girl threw the locket at my feet before she took off crying. Well, mama's right, the truth will set you free.

No one else bothered me after that. I learned a lot about the Vinkus. I could tell you the official flower, the official animal, and the official color. I could tell you how long the royal family has been in power; the name of the first member of the family—of my family—to take the throne. I could tell you all about the weather, the forestation, the population, the geography, and the castles. After catching up on the Vinkus, I went over to the 'T' section. I went to look up Tiggular, my family's name. But when I was flipping the pages, I found her. I found mama.

Most of the people in the library had cleared out by then. It was getting close to suppertime, and I knew that the sun would be setting soon. I still hadn't heard anyone calling my name, but I also figured daddy wouldn't be running around town, drawing attention to himself. I used this in my favor. Some of the books and newspaper clippings had blamed daddy on some of the economic problems in the Vinkus about ten years ago. A lot of mean things were said, but the main idea was that if daddy learned how to keep his pecker in his pants, alliances with noblemen in other areas wouldn't have been cut. Mama was the best thing that ever happened to him.

I found her, though. She was before daddy in the 'T' section. I grabbed as many books as I could that looked like they could help me. I would have tore some of the pages out and stuffed them in my bag, but I was afraid how mad the punishment would be for stealing pages. Probably no worse than stealing food, but I didn't want to try my luck. Besides, if mama wouldn't steal from a library then neither would I.

There was a lot more to grasp with all the things on mama than there was for the Vinkus. The Vinkus was territory. It was pretty basic to understand. But mama had all these stories leading up to mama. There was her family as a girl. There was the death of her family. There were stories that didn't make sense. There were stories that said one thing one time then another thing sometime later. There were stories that called her a witch. There were stories that called her a hero. There were stories about her and daddy. There were stories about her and Animals. I couldn't wrap my head around it all. But most of all, I didn't know what to think. Especially when I found the story about her death.

"Liir." I jumped awake when I heard daddy's voice. I looked around wildly, it was really dark out past the windows. "Come on, bug, it's time to check out."

"No, I have to keep reading." I mumbled. I felt his hand on my shoulder before I saw him.

"Do you read through osmosis?"

"What?" I frowned at him.

"Come on," He repeated. "We have to go. People are looking for us."

"Bad guys?" I felt my stomach get sick.

"Well, they aren't looking to help us." He beckoned for me to follow him. I gathered the pages I ended up tearing from the books and stuffed them in my bag, running to catch up with daddy.

"Do Chistery and the Goat know?"

"Yes." He said the same way he says things when he doesn't want to keep talking.

"Are they going to tell on us?" I wanted to keep talking.

"No, Liir."

"Why not? What if someone pays them money to? What if someone promises them a better life?"

"Some people are selfless in Oz, Liir." Daddy said, swinging himself onto Baumer and pulling me up after. "We aren't in the Bad Lands anymore, son."

"You're telling me."

_**Day Twenty Four-FIYERO**_

Liir screamed like a banshee as Baumer bucked and reared until we crashed into a heap on the ground. Every bone in my body felt the shock of being roughly forced from the beast, but we didn't have time to tend to anything. Baumer was going to drop any second now, and those on our tails wouldn't wait if we called time out. I scooped Liir up in my arms, unsure if he had any wounds from the accident. Holding Liir tight, I darted through the forest, zig zagging to make sure my course was all over the place. Just like I thought, as I glanced back, Baumer let out a horribly deafening sound before his legs gave out and he fell to the ground. Poor Liir. If I was almost four times his age and couldn't stomach the sight, Lurline only knows how the kid must have felt.

"Baumer!" He cried, big tear drops leaving his eyes. "We have to go back for him!"

"We can't." I huffed out, losing breath and steam by the moment.

I could see the roof of the train station just at the horizon. Just a few more minutes and we'd be on the train headed for Oz knows where. Away from here. The Vinkus wasn't even a priority anymore. I needed to get somewhere where Liir would be safe and could eat at least a piece of bread a day. I could go days without eating, having been trained for that during hunting season in the Vinkus; but Liir had grown up having three meals a day, however small they were, there had always been three meals a day. But for the past three weeks, he'd be lucky if he got three meals in three days. And don't think he never mentioned it to me. He's a growing boy, so if the conversation wasn't about me or his mother, it was about food.

My arms were shaking from supporting the extra weight while exerting myself to the brink. I wasn't out of shape...really. I just wasn't use to this type of exercise. Walking and riding used different kinds of muscles than full of sprinting through a forest. Maybe ten years ago I would have been able to handle all this running from authorities and away from capture; but I was in my late twenties, and my muscles were surely in their late forties. At least that's what they felt like. The only thing that kept me trekking towards the ever closer train station was the thought of my family being together again. Soon. We were so close to her, I could feel it, and I was not going to give up. She was the love of my life. He was the apple of my eye. I'd done many things in my life that I should have regretted; but I didn't. If I stopped searching, though...it'd be my one regret.

"Hey!" I called out to the carriage driver who was examining his nails as he waited for someone. "What's your route?" I panted, coming to a dead stop in front of him.

"Shiz, Emerald City, and back." He eyed me warily. Liir's arms were wrapped tightly around my neck. The driver's eyes softened slightly at the boy.

"You're going to Shiz?" The man nodded. "Will you take us? We don't have much money, but I need to get the boy somewhere safe." I added.

The driver looked at me apprehensively but sighed in defeat. I let out a breath in relief as he ushered us into the carriage, taking half the actual cost. Glinda and the Vinkus could wait. I could always send word to her, in some discrete message, while I replenished Liir's lost strength. At least in Shiz, I could steal one meal a day for him. It would be easier to hide if we were in plain sight, too. No one would expect us to be in a city full of people. Shiz and then the City once Liir was a bit healthier. We could stock up, and then we could try for the Vinkus again once food and money were only a little worrisome. I nodded to myself as the carriage started moving. This would be the best option.

Shiz had seemed so much more...appealing when I first arrived here all those years ago. I carried Liir out of the carriage when the driver stopped in the heart of the town. Bars were there to drink my troubles away. Dance halls were there to shirk responsibility. Willing girls were there to uphold my reputation. And my future was there. Of course, that was then. Lurline knows where my future is; but, as far as I was concerned, I was standing in my past. Shiz was nothing more than a shed snake skin. A stop before my destination was complete. I thanked the driver as I fixed my grip on Liir to keep him from falling while I held onto everything else.

"Liir." I whispered into his ear while ducking into an alley.

He grumbled in recognition but made no attempt to move.

"We're in Shiz, bug." I kissed head, lowering him to the ground.

Liir yawned and stretched as he looked out to the bustling evening street. "Is that where you nearly killed mama?" He asked with a grin.

I nudged him lightly and handed him some things to carry.

We walked around the back alleys for a while before finding an abandoned building that was unlocked. I held Liir's hand as I looked around the place, making sure no one else had claimed it as their own. It was empty and dusty. If anyone had inhabited this place, they hadn't been here in days or weeks. Which was great news for me. I dropped my things in one of the back rooms. First, I needed to get us food and water. Then a satchel for all our things. We couldn't keep collecting things with the assumption that we could carry it by ourselves or in Liir's small bag. Especially with the broom. We'd save a lot of space if we got rid of it, but I couldn't do that. Not that Liir would let me anyway.

He was determined to make its magic come back for good or for a bit. He swore he could do it. It's not that I doubted my son, I just doubted how much of his mother's genes he had in him. I think he had more of my optimistic tendencies in him. I mean, come on, I wasn't exactly known for my keen sense of practicality and realism.

"Where are we going?" Liir cast a nervous glance over his shoulder as we walked further and further away from our momentary solace.

I found a niche in a closet to stuff our belongings in. I was convinced we'd be fine, but Liir was paranoid about someone finding them. He obviously didn't know Shiz. If anyone found them, they wouldn't steal them. This was Shiz. Creme de la crème and what not.

"Don't tell me you're not hungry." I smirked down at him.

"Hey-ah!" Some drunk Shiz student called into the night as he stumbled out of a bar. Liir frowned at him.

"Wait for me!" A girl shrieked from somewhere behind us. Liir's frown deepened. I had a feeling his frown would grow even deeper the longer we were out here.

"Fiyero Tiggular!" Liir and I stumbled to a stop when another girl who had been walking towards us suddenly clung on tightly to my arm. Liir's eyes about bugged out of his head as he stared up at the girl. Her eyes were narrowed, and she was staring me dead in the eyes with this misty gaze. "You look just like Fiyero Tiggular!" The only thing preventing me from losing my cool was the knowledge that Fiyero Tiggular is dead. Murdered by the Gale Force. I am dead.

"Chimzie!" A new girl giggled. "I'm sorry, Mister, she's had a lot to drunk." She frowned. "Drink." She corrected herself, pulling her friend off of me. "Some of our friends tell us that the prince's ghost haunts the bars in Shiz. Reliving those glory days." She explained. "Hi, cutie." She winked at Liir affectionately.

"Well, I daresay, if he does haunt the bars, he's quite lucky to be in company of such pretty girls." Liir shot me a disgusted look as I flirted with the giggling school girls. Give me a break, kid, I have a plan. "You really think I look like the prince?" I turned my face from side to side, shooting them one of my, if I do say so myself, dazzling smiles.

"I could see it." Chimzie batted her long lashes. For a moment I forgot to breathe. She reminded me so much of Glinda at that age, terribly close. "Our sister once told us about a night she had with the prince." She added, playing with the material of my cloak. "Perhaps you're more similar to the prince in more than just appearance." She smiled seductively. The other girl, her sister, bit her lip playfully as she twirled her blonde hair around a finger. Oh Oz. I'm sorry, Liir.

"Do you live far from here?" I played along, much to my son's utter loathing.

"We have an apartment not far from here." Chimzie grinned slyly. "With two bedrooms." She added after glancing at Liir.

"With thick walls." Her sister added.

Biting the bullet, "I can assure you, ladies, the prince has nothing on me."

Believe it or not, I probably only slept with half the girls gossip claimed I slept with. Don't get me wrong, every girl they claimed I went home with, I actually did. But actually sleep with them all? Not really. Most of them were so drunk I could have fed them any line, and they would have believed it. And within that group of girls, there were the girls who were so drunk that by the time we made it to a bed, they had no steam left to do what we intended. Chimzie and her sister were no exception. The seven block walk only hindered them partially, but the five story climb to their apartment had them crawling into the bedroom. Not even making it onto the bed. The second we entered the fine apartment, I ordered Liir to go wait in the kithen. He gave me a good long glare before submitting to my demand. Chill, I got this.

Just like I had done many times before, I placed the girls on the bed in the room once they were both passed out. I ruffled their hair, messed up the sheets, undressed the girls until they were in awkward positions in their underwear. My mother would never forgive me if she knew I was doing this. Glinda would never forgive me. But you've got to to what you've got to do in order to survive. And it wasn't just me. I was fending for my son's life, too. I would do anything to keep him alive and safe.

I took deodorant and toothpaste from their bathroom, two satchels from their closet, and all of the money from their purses. I had no intention of repaying them. They were saving a boy's life. Repayment enough. I poked my head into each room I passed, trying to think of things I could take on the spot. Too bad I hadn't run into a boy who was looking for some fun. Could have taken clothes.

"Bug?" I popped into the kitchen as Liir hugged his knees to his chest. Crying into them.

He shot me a look.

"Liir." I said softly, sinking to the floor in front of him. He turned his face, so he wouldn't have to look at me. I took his face in my hands, forcing the eye contact. "Liir, I love your mother with all my heart." I whispered and he sobbed. "I would never do anything to contradict those feelings. Do you really think so little of me?"

"No." He mumbled through his tears. "I miss mama."

"Me too, bug." I kissed his forehead. "Now, let's eat. Take what you can fit in this." I tossed him a satchel. "Go for things in jars and cans. They won't spoil as quick." I told him, putting random food into my bag. "Nothing with milk in it." I added as an after thought. Liir's stomach didn't sit well with milk products.

Liir had a silly grin on his face as he stuffed a few cans into his satchel.

"Ready?" I asked, fixing his cloak so the satchel was under it.

Like I figured, no one stole our belongings from the niche. No one had even come in the building. I glanced around it cautiously, though. I wonder what it had been and what it was going to be turned into. Another bar maybe? I think it had been a dance hall when I was back at Shiz. Kind of a back alley one, but still a dance hall where I could dance the night away. But it looked like it hadn't been a dance hall in quite some time. The wall paper was peeling, light fixtures were falling out, and floor boards creaked from age. It was perfect for our needs right now, though. We just needed shelter for a week while I formed another plan and felt out Shiz for information.

"What are you smiling about?" Liir was smiling like an idiot as he dug through his satchel, handing me cans and jars to stack in the niche. He held the last two cans close before handing them over to me.

"Peas."

**What did you think of Liir's narrative? Tell me your favorite line, and I'll tell you mine:)**

**When Fiyero says that he's almost four times Liir's age, I don't mean that Fiyero is 24. I mean that Liir is a few days shy of turning seven. Like next chapter.**

**Next chapter: Another almost with Elphaba;)**

**Seven reviews for an update by the weekend?**


	10. Day Twenty Eight

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed/favorited/alerted!**

**So I kind of struggled with this chapter. The second half mostly. I wasn't sure if I actually wanted to do it like I ended up doing it. I'm not sure how you all will take it either...**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

_**Twenty Eight**_

I laid on the edge of the clearing and stared up at the forest ceiling that shielded the place that brought back so many memories. Liir was safe back in the shelter we had claimed for the past few days. I didn't feel it was necessary to wake him up if I was just coming here and then back. I did leave the locket with him, though. If he woke up and all traces of me were gone, he'd have a heart attack. So I nestled the locket in a way I wouldn't have been able to if I had been taken. He was smart. He would understand. I just needed to be here. We had been so close to it for the past several days, and it wouldn't have felt right if I hadn't come. I would have constantly wished I would have, and I don't do too well with missed opportunities. Just the idea of not acting on an impulse is absurd to me; but I always come back to get what I want. History clearly shows that.

There was a bush to my right. In the spring it's full and lush, but in the dead of winter it would easily give my position away. It was early spring when the Lion Cub happened. I was well hidden. I was here. Watching her. I know that sounds like I was some sort of stalker, but how was I supposed to leave? How was I supposed to go running back to her best friend when that had just happened? I only made it this far before I crashed to the ground. Sure, thinking back on it, it was probably my jelly legs that brought me down. Back then, though, I was sure it was fate. So I sat there sorting out my feelings as she tried repressing hers. I sat trying to come to terms with my emotions while she tried denying hers. We were so close, yet we were so far. Just like now. I was sure we were within earshot, but if I called for her, she would only hear the wind in her ears.

A wetness in my ear startled me up. It had been so unexpected that I didn't know what to think at first. But it was just me. I almost felt ashamed that I didn't know, and that it even happened, what I had been doing. I shook my shoulders out and sat back into the shadows, facing the clearing. Maybe the past weeks we'd been in Oz had made me numb, maybe that's why I didn't know. Who knows. Maybe it had happened more than once. In my sleep. Liir did it in his sleep all the time, who's to say I didn't do it. Anything was possible in the time between complete consciousness.

"It's when you're most sincere." She had told me once. "You're too detached from reality to focus on what reality is supposed to be."

It made sense, but she clearly didn't understand that it should only be applied to certain circumstances. Finding out a cheating partner. Yes. Who made the mess in the bathroom. Yes. Little things like that. Having children, no. Lucky for me, my brain was not made of straw when she brought that up. And I have a knack for remembering everything that comes out of that pretty little mouth of hers.

"Yero," She had whispered so softly that if she had used any less effort, I wouldn't have heard her. But it had been just the right amount to wake me up. "my hero?" I had moaned in response, letting her know I was up. "What kind of legacy do you want to leave?"

"What?"

"When you die, what do you want to be remembered by?"

"You must have left some straw up there, my love." I had teased. "Give me an example."

Even now, I remember the sensation of her running her fingers aimlessly across my chest as she tried putting her thoughts into words. I brought a hand to my chest absentmindedly. If I closed my eyes I could feel the warmth of her green fingers.

"The Wicked Witch of the West. It's my legacy. I'll always be remembered in history as the Wicked Witch of the West." She had mumbled finally.

"No," I had turned on my side to face her, keeping my head propped up. "To hell with Ozians. What we build here is going to be the legacy that matters. You'll be remembered as the woman who saved a man from living his life as a scarecrow. You'll be the woman who saved the lame horse from being butchered. You'll be remembered as the woman who does more in less time."

"Won't I ever be the mother of your child?" She had said with a light tone.

"No," I remember the frown on her face when I told her that. "Because that's going to be my legacy. The father of your child."

"Even if the baby's green?" Rolling of the eyes.

"Especially so."

"Well," She had patted my chest so nonchalantly that I had thought that was it, and the conversation was over. So I had plopped back down before shooting up after she finished: "We'll see how true that is in several more months."

It was so casual. I laughed out into the night. It was so her.

There was a soft rustling somewhere in the leaves behind me. I probably should have paid more attention to it, but I was so lost in my own memories and thoughts that it seemed like nothing. I passed it off as nothing more than a woodland animal scurrying around. If I had been more alert, though, I would have remembered that the woodland animals didn't populate this place. Not in this weather. It wasn't until something hard collided with the side of my head, sending a shooting pain through it, that my senses came back to me. I yelped but scrambled forward away from whatever had attacked me. There was a new wetness in my ear, and I knew it wasn't tears this time. I winced when I brought my hand to my ear and felt the broken flesh. Fantastic.

I don't know how far I made it before something smacked me dead center in the back. It knocked the wind out of me and had me on all fours, coughing and sputtering. Last time I would ever come to this damned spot alone. Bucking up, I started to get up but a pressure on my back floored me. The cool feeling of a rifle on the back of my neck kept me from trying to escape.

"Move and I'll kill you." A raspy voice hissed. I put my palms flat on the ground.

"I have a family." I said lightly into the dirt. The rifle shifted slightly.

"What are you doing here? Who are you?"

"I'm just a visitor trying to clutch to my memories."

"What memory is here?"

"It's personal."

I let out a sigh when the pressure lifted from my back, and the rifle was laid to the side of me.

"Moramine." My attacker sat down next to me after I had rolled up into a sitting position. She handed me a cloth to put against my cut. "I thought you were my father."

My stomach turned a little at the thought of what she was intending to do to him. And from the fact that she mistook me for someone who had to be older than myself. I didn't look that old, did I? Maybe in the dark. I needed to work on my appearance.

"Ero." I offered her. I felt 'Yero' would be too easily identified. It was a common nickname in the Vinkus for Fiyero.

"You have a family, too?"

I nodded. "I have a son, Liir." Moramine made a small noise. "Your father's in a pickle?"

"He was," Moramine shrugged. "Now he's a dead man walking. Sorry again." I shook my head. Better to me bruised than brainless. Again. "He killed my mother." I dropped the cloth. Moramine stared at the blood-stained cloth at my right knee. "He'll be lucky if the Gale Forcers find him first."

"Has someone already alerted the Gale Forcers?"

Moramine dug through her satchel and handed me a fairly recent newspaper. I didn't even have time to flip open the newspaper to the section she had marked. The bottom of the front page had all the blood in my system draining. Moramine shouted lists of profanities at me after I shot up and sprinted through the forest. I had to get back to Liir. I had thrown an apology at her as I was getting up, but I almost felt like she owed this to me. I mean, she did almost kill me. A newspaper seems like something she could spare.

Liir jolted awake when I burst through the doors, out of breath and moving with all the grace of his mother. He stared wildly at me as I rushed around the makeshift shelter.

"Are you mad?" He finally asked as I gather our things. I tossed the newspaper to him. Liir squinted to read the tiny words in the dark. "What's South Stairs?"

"Remember that old bat who sold an exotic novel to your mama about a year ago?" Liir frowned for a second.

"Dante's Inferno?"

"Level seven."

"Mama was in South Stairs?"

"According to the article."

Liir turned back to the article and started to read aloud:

_"Escape From South Stairs_

_WANTED: The Protegé_

_Ozians are warned to be on the lookout for a woman who we believe is the protegé to the late Witch. Gale Forcers arrested her at the Ozian border going into Quox, where it is thought she was trying to flee to. She has spent the last four weeks in South Stairs, but this morning her cell was empty. The grounds have been swept twice and are continuously being so until evidence of how her escape happened is found. Her escape should be enough to warn Ozians just how dangerous she is. No one has escaped South Stairs under its new administration. _

_It should be noted that she is highly trained in the black arts, and she is not above using her power to her preference. She can easily slip from authorities and hide in plain sight._

_The Protegé was picked up a month ago on the Ozian border. She claimed she had never heard of the Witch in her life, but Gale Forcers had enough suspicion to arrest her. A witness reported that the Protegé had slipped from her constraints within the first week. She was then chased through the forest and recaptured. South Stairs' doctors conducted several examinations on her since her arrival and state that her stamina had wavered over the weeks. They assure Ozians that should you come in contact with her, there is no true worry. Dr. Ermergedah states, "The prisoner is weak. Between the miscarriage and rigorous South Stairs treatment, we have enough initiative to believe that any ordinary citizen can easily overpower her." _

_We will keep audiences posted as we receive information. If you know anything, citizens are encouraged to contact their nearest person of authority. No matter the state of the Protegé, no Ozians need to lose their lives again in her_ downfall."

"What does protegé mean?" Liir asked.

I leaned against the wall after everything was packed and ready to go. "It's like someone who takes over your job when you're done. Someone who is trained by the prior."

"Like a princess to a Queen?" I shrugged. Sort of. Liir looked back down. "Black arts?"

"Witchcraft."

"What's a miscarriage?" Liir watched me carefully as I shifted from the wall to the ground, picking up our things.

"Nothing you need to worry about, bug." I kissed his head and helped him to his feet. "We need to get moving. We might be able to find mama now that we're not too far."

"Well, it's bad." Liir stated matter-of-factly.

"Yeah." I nodded, leading him out of the room.

"But not bad enough to keep mama from escaping the seventh level."

"Yeah." I croaked out.

"So mama was in prison, but now she's out." He mused as we headed out into the night again. "Well, I didn't ask for anything for my birthday, but I think this news is better than any present."

The comfort of blissful ignorance.

**Moramine won't be seen again, but she does play a big role in reuniting Fiyero and Liir with Elphaba. Any thoughts how?**

**That being said: We're almost there! Seriously. I just rewrote Elphaba's corporeal appearance. **

**Please review! **

**If you review, I'll reply with the day she arrives:)**


	11. Day Thirty Two

**This chapter is for musicalvampirelove. Two days in one, so I can get all you impatient people to Elphaba's return:)**

**Day Thirty Two**

Liir sat perched on the edge of the bench, unmoving. He stared straight out into the lobby at the man behind the desk. If looks could kill, the man would be dead. The boy had his mother's intense gaze. The fire behind it was a whole new brand that the world had yet to see. The little rodent of a man who was in the cell with us was huddled in the corner, watching Liir as my son attempted to make fire shoot from his eyes. The rodent kept muttering something, but he was speaking too softly for me to hear him. Not that I particularly cared what he was saying. He was just some poor, stupid crook. I was going to go nuts in here between the two of them. Liir hadn't moved since we were shoved in this damned cell. And the rodent hadn't stopped mumbling to himself since we arrived. We'd been in here for most of the day. How long does it take for crazy to set in?

I snapped my attention to the rodent when he clearly muttered, "Witch's blood."

"What did you say?" I hissed, leaving Liir's area and invading the rodent's personal space.

He cowered even more into himself as I closed in and repeated my question. The rodent kept his shoulders hunched over his crouching form, but his eyes bore into mine. I can't lie, I was caught off by them a little. It was a strange feeling of déjà vu. I didn't have time to contemplate the familiarity of his eyes, though, because no sooner than the feeling washed over me, the feeling of the rodent's spit in my face took over. Acting out, I grabbed his neck and lifted him off the ground. He was short. Only came up to my shoulders probably, but his height just made it easier for me to scare the living Oz out of him.

The rodent sputtered and flailed against my grip. His heels pounded against the wall and made a strange sound as they came in contact with the cold stone. He clutched onto my wrist, unintelligently begging me to stop restricting his air flow. I held him there, though.

Without thinking, I snapped, "Do you know who I am?"

A peasant's lips would have been singed if he had spit in the prince's face back in the Vinkus.

"Tiggular."

I dropped the rodent. Can't say I was expecting that. I frowned at the crook as he gasped for the air that had recently been permitted entrance into his lungs. It was slightly worrisome that no one had paid any attention to our interaction. Liir was still glaring at the man in the lobby, and the man in the lobby was still reading the paper, oblivious to, or ignoring, Liir.

The tension in the air was startled by a large gust of wind and clap of thunder.

"Witch!" The rodent shrieked.

The guard shot up after another gust of wind came through and extinguished any candle that chased the shadows in the room. Only the moonlight shone through the barred windows. I glanced at Liir. He was still sitting there, staring at the baffled guard. The rodent kept shouting behind. I had half a mind to show him just how Tiggular I was, but Liir's odd attitude had me preoccupied. Giving the rodent one last shove, I hurried to Liir's side. His skin was freezing, and his face had the same blank yet ignited expression I had seen once before. From his mother. The day Dr. Dillamond left Shiz. The day cages were introduced at Shiz.

"Liir." I whispered as the guard started laughing. Liir didn't acknowledge me. He wasn't even staring at the guard as the man started a fire in the fireplace. His gaze was transfixed on the lobby. "Liir." I warned in an even lower voice. Warned about what, though?

"Oi, shut it, you cod." The guard threw something at the rodent. It shut him up, thank Oz. He was quiet as he leaned against the desk nearest to the cell. "She sat right there, you know?" He nodded to where Liir was sitting before coming to stand in front of the bars. "You got some sort of special attachment to the Protegé, kid?" Liir still didn't look at him. "Ero and Liir." He mused.

I watched as the guard fell into his element. He seemed completely at ease as he started prodding Liir for a reaction. I don't think he actually expected a response from Liir. Not really. The boy hadn't spoken a word since we were caught in that damned forest where his mother and I...well, where we were first together. We'd seen the paper that said we were wanted for questioning the day before, but neither of us thought that anyone was actively looking. There was no reward. No explanation. All it said was that a tip had come in about a man and a boy who needed to be questioned. And there we were, settling down for the night and then bam. Ambush.

"She's green as sin." The guard said. "Just like the Witch. I had my pail all ready to test the theory out." It was the first time Liir's eyes had moved from their locked gaze. They flickered briefly to the pail of water by the guard's desk. "They take them into the deeper levels of the basement." He knocked his foot against the ground. "Then back up to holding. She was right there when it happened, you know." I heard the rodent fall to the floor and choke up some bile at the thought. I felt the color drain from my face. I watched the blankness from Liir's face fall.

The guard had his attention now. He smirked, pleased with himself, "That's right."

"Here?" Liir's voice was off.

"Right where your bum is planted." The guard grinned ruthlessly. Liir didn't move, though. "They're saying you and your daddy were in cahoots with the Protegé, kid. Is that right? Did your daddy knock up the brussels sprout?" The guard laughed harshly. I could see Liir piecing information together in his brain. "Right there. I was here when it happened. Watched her lose it. And then lose it in a puddle of her own blood."

"That's enough." I snapped. The guard glanced at me and then back at Liir.

"Crying in a puddle of blood." Liir flushed at the guard's words. "We made her clean it up afterwards. It was the least we could do. She can't clean up your little sister's diapers, so she can clean up her remains."

That was all it took. The second I leapt towards the guard, the fireplace went out and a strange gurgling sound echoed in the otherwise empty room. I ran into the bars roughly as the guard laughed and backed away. The rodent was sobbing in the corner, and Liir was planted to the bench, staring at the guard. I shouted a variety of curse words and tried extending my arm as long as it would possibly go to get to him. It was fruitless, though.

I stumbled away when the color from the guard's face fell. He looked like death. I stared at him, horrified. What was happening? His eyes started glossing over and bulging. He clutched his throat, opened and shut his mouth over and over, and looked around wildly. He looked like a fish. My back collided with the wall. Thankfully. I might have fainted if it weren't for the strong support. There was an eerie moment of silence before the guard gasped then gagged on something. And then it started. At first, I thought it was just drool coming from his mouth, but that was way too much to just be drool, and I found myself staggering forward again. I held onto the cell bars, squinting in a mix of horror and fascination at the guard. Something was coming from his mouth, overflowing from it.

The rodent let out a cry when the guard doubled over in front of the cell and coughed out a bunch of water.

"Liir!" I barked, getting over my terror.

Liir snapped his attention to me. His expression back to what it usually was, and the color evenly situated on his face. It was unsettling. He glanced over at the guard who was still in a process of choking on the water and coughing it up. "It's not me!" Liir pleaded.

I shot him a look.

"I swear!" He spat, giving me a look he must have picked up from his mother. Liir scrambled off the bench and hurried to fetch the keys from the inhibited guard.

"Go get our things." I ordered as I leaned down next to the guard. Liir shot off in the dark. I patted the guard's back as he continued to cough up water. "I'm going to fire off your weapon, so someone will come and help you. I'm sorry, I don't know how to stop the water." He nodded in understanding. "I'm helping you save your life, are you going to help me save my son's?" He didn't do anything for a bit, but just before Liir came running back in, he offered a hand. "I'll find a way to thank you."

"Dad." Liir tossed me my things and started towards the exit.

I squeezed the guard's shoulder before getting up.

I paused as I passed the pale by the man's desk. It was losing water. I glanced back at the guard on the ground. As he tossed another splash of water to the ground, the pale emptied some. I looked up at Liir. He was glaring at the guard again.

**Day Thirty Five**

"So mama was going to have a baby?" Liir asked one night as we wandered the alleys of the Emerald City like the rest of the Wanted in the City.

"Yeah." I muttered, giving his hand a soft squeeze.

"Where do babies come from?"

I laughed. "Ask your mama when we find her."

"She's just going to tell me to ask you."

"No she won't."

"You want me to ask the woman who just lost a baby where babies come from?" Liir shot me a skeptical look. "That's smart."

"Liir." I chastised. His mother was the disciplinarian. She was going to kill me for letting the rules of attitude be so lax. She was going to kill me for allowing Liir to almost kill a man. To which Liir still claims he had no doing in that. He doesn't even remember anything but the guard telling him about his mother's miscarriage. Of all the things to remember.

"So you have to tell me."

I sighed and looked around. "Fine."

Liir grinned and sat down against the wall of a greener building. I think it was a library.

"You see," I started. "When a mommy and daddy really love each...well, they don't have to really love each other. Or love each other at all. Or know each other. " I stopped. What about adoptions? Same sex couples? Bi-species? His mother could worry about that. He was asking where, not how. "Babies come from a mama's belly."

"How do they get there?"

Of course. "You see, Liir..." Liir grinned at my lack of words. "We have this special...ness. In our pee."

"Our pee?"

"Yeah." I confirmed, feeling more confident with this. "It's white pee, and it gets girl specialness pregnant. You can only release your specialness when you're older, though."

"Why?"

"Because you want to keep your special seed as long as you can, bug. It's very special. A special, special seed. You can't just go around shooting your special seed at the first special egg you see."

"How does the special seed get to the special egg?"

"You have to pee on it."

"That's gross."

"Exactly."

"You peed on mama?" He looked up at me, completely disgusted.

"You almost killed a man." I retorted.

"It wasn't me!"

"Come on," I stood up, changing the subject. "We need to find some food and refuel our strength."

**What are you thinking? What'd you think of the prison scene?**


	12. Day Thirty Eight

**Yay! You guys rock! See, lots of reviews = quick updates:)**

**This is for ElphieGrl38, because I get the reference! And because of our awesome PM convo:)**

**This one makes me a little teary-eyed when I reread it.**

**Disclaimer:**

**Day Thirty Eight**

The evening was long as Liir and I sat in a tree across from the Vinkun Embassy of the Emerald City. All the embassies in the City were in the opposite corners of the compass. The Quadling Embassy was nearest Southstairs and the Shiz Gate. We passed it when we were being escorted into the City by the Gale Forcers. It's a tiny thing. Mostly because the Quadling Empress rarely makes visits to the City, but also because it was the embassy built after the Gillikinese Embassy. Material ran out. The Gillikinese Embassy, being in the southern most past of the City, nearest the palace, was by the Munchkin Mousehole. I remember Glinda always complaining about it's location. She could always smell manure from the fields in the mornings she stayed there with her parents. The Munkinland Embassy was at Westgate, the checkpoint into the Vinkus. Back in the days before Shiz, my friends and I use to wreak havoc on the simple farmhouse when it was occupied. I almost died laughing when I found out my wife's family was the family that occupied the embassy.

And then there was the Vinkun Embassy. Not quite as grandiose and modernized as the Gillikinese Embassy but very regal. What else would you expect from a royal family? Our embassy was the first build, and the only one built of brick and stone. It was the only embassy that wasn't near an entranceway, because The Madeleines were directly east of the rear of the embassy; but their placement only added to the beauty of the landscape. It was set in the middle of a maple tree grove with a cobblestone path winding from the streets of the City to the front of the embassy. The trees were never a sore sight. I loved them best in autumn. The colors reminded me of the colors you see in the Grasslands. We were sitting in one of the maple trees that I had climbed with my father when I was younger. It's the same tree I ran into when I was running away from bath time, too. I grinned as I kept watching the embassy. It was also the only building built for the royal family that only had enough rooms to accommodate the royal family and one other family. Liir was impressed.

Liir definitely had Vinkun Royal blood running through his veins. In all the time we had been outside the embassy, he had stayed completely still. He didn't even open his mouth to yawn when he needed to. I had caught him doing this strange thing with his jaw a few times. After the fourth or fifth time, I realized he was yawning. I nodded in approval. It took months for my father to beat that into my brain. Liir has great genetics. His mother and I set him up for superiority. With her brain and logic, my good looks and instinct, Liir would grow up to be the perfect creature. I frowned. And there could have been another perfect creature just like him. A girl? A little girl...what would she have looked like? Her mother's eyes and my hair? Liir's eyes narrowed suspiciously when he caught me staring at him, but he did nothing more than that. He would be an excellent hunter. A natural predator.

"There." I breathed.

We both stilled as the light in the front room went out, and a man in uniform exited the front door moments later. I didn't recognize him at all. He locked the door and stayed still, looking through the trees, for a minute. When he was content, he fastened his cloaked tighter around his neck and mounted his horse. Liir and I didn't leave the tree for another fifteen or so minutes.

"I really like this." Liir said as I lead him through the grove.

I tapped on a few of the bricks that trimmed the front door until I found the one that had been my saviors for years and years when I was younger. I couldn't believe that I didn't recognize it. The brick came out easily and under what appeared to be rumble was a spare key.

"Wow." Was all Liir said as we walked into the foyer. I looped the key onto the chain that held my locket. "We can live here when we find mama." He added.

I laughed softly. "I don't think so, bug." I ruffled his hair and took his hand. We walked into the living room. It was still warm, and there were still some embers burning in the fire pit. I could see the smoke still trailing from the recently put out candle, and it still gave off the warm vanilla smell. They were my mother's favorite candles.

Liir continued to look through the living room as I started the fire back up. It was getting colder out, and our clothes were getting thinner. I was going to have to steal some from somewhere before the coldest part of the year kicked in. The fire cackled and crackled invitingly after I added a few more logs to it. My father and I used to shop the logs ourselves when we came here for business. My mother would be attending meetings in the Palace while father and I stayed here. We chopped firewood, ran the horses, and go over lessons. That was before I hit puberty. After puberty he would go to meetings with mother, and I would shop in the City. Shop for clothes, oils, women...Whatever I needed my share of.

"Does this place have a kitchen?"

I snorted. Does this place have a kitchen...

"Now this is a kitchen." Liir muttered as I ushered him in it. I knew he was referring back to Dr. Dillamond's tiny closet of one. And trust me, I was thinking the same thing.

"My father and I used to make hot drinks in here all the time." I smiled as I took the chocolate powder from the cabinet. "I was never one for bedtime, so I would sneak down and go play with some of the stray cats that hung around. One night when I was coming back in, I found my father digging through the fridge, trying to find a midnight snack." Liir grinned. "He asked me what I was doing, and I told him I couldn't sleep." It happened a few more times over the next couple of weeks; so next time we came back, we just skipped the prelude. I came down after my mother went to bed, and we would have hot drinks and leftovers."

"That sounds wonderful." I nodded in agreement.

"He was a great man." I sighed, looking at the counter where we sat every time. "He was an honest man."

"Do you think he would be proud of you."

I stared blankly for a second. Would he? "I don't know." I stirred the chocolate concoction on the stove.

"I think he would."

I laughed, "Why's that?"

"Well," Liir slid into the chair I had always sat in. "I think the single most important thing a father can teach his son is how to love." He said as I poured the hot liquid into two mugs and sat next to my son. "Because when you know how to love, you know how to share that love, and how to teach others to love. And if you and mama haven't lied to me with all your stories, then you taught mama how to love. I don't think I would be the same person if you and mama hadn't shown me the love you were shown. So I think your daddy would be proud of you. And if he wouldn't, then he's crazy." Liir shrugged. "And it doesn't matter, because I'm proud of you, daddy." He finished with a sip of his drink.

If the shock of being caught hadn't revitalized me, my son's words might have killed me.

But, "Move and I shoot." was followed by the sound of a gun being cocked. Liir froze with his hands firm on the rim of his mug.

I clutched the edge of the table at the sounds that had entered the room. Her voice made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on edge. I heard the rustling of her night cloak as she moved behind us. His hunting skills forgotten, Liir's mind went when she stepped around us. The barrel of her rifle aimed at me. Liir's shattered on the table, and the dark liquid from it was a even a deep contrast with dark maple wood table. He was essentially staring at the person he was a carbon copy of.

"Who are you?" My mother asked as she let the mess go.

"You're the Queen..." He muttered in amazement. I almost lost it when she let out a soft laugh. "I'm Liir." He added in a breath, his voice still hazy with wonder.

My mother had not released her grip on the rifle yet, and I noticed it tighten when Liir said his name. She aimed the rifle back at me, with this newfound tight grip, and narrowed her eyes. I couldn't believe how much Liir looked like her. Did she see it? Obviously he did. Did she recognize me at all? Random people on the street thought they did all the time, wouldn't my own mother?

"Ero?" Fiyero, mama, Fiyero. I nodded slowly. "You're the ones who broke out of Southstairs?" I glanced at Liir. "Why are you here?"

"We're looking for my mama." Liir told her. "We can't find her."

"Where's your mother?" Her gaze flickered back to Liir. He hit the jackpot with that.

"The Gale Forcers took her."

"They took your mother?"

He nodded.

"Where are you from, dear?" She traded the rifle for something to wipe the mess up with.

"The Bad Lands," Liir said. She frowned. "But I'm half Vinkun." He added with a new excitement.

My mother's eyes landed back on me. "Are you a Vinkun?"

I swallowed the lump in my throat before answering, "I haven't been home in ten years." I managed to choke out.

And that's all it took. She stopped wiping the mess and just stared at me. I knew Liir was happy with his handiwork, but I didn't even make an effort to shoot him a look. This was the first time I'd seen my mother since before I was engaged to Glinda. It seemed like an eternity. She was so beautiful. There were greys in her dark brown, but she held that ethereal beauty. She was timeless. I don't even think it was possible for her to be ugly. It may make me less of a man, but all I wanted to do was hug my mama.

"Forgive me, I don't mean to be rude and stare." She quickly finished wiping off the table. "You remind me of someone."

"People have told us he resembles the late Prince." Liir poked.

"My dear, my son is not dead." She said sternly.

"You don't think so?"

My mother stiffened as she rinsed out the rag she had used to wipe the table with. She was never one to share all her feelings, especially ones so personal as such as this.

"When you find your mother, you ask her if she ever once thought you had died." She sat down at the table in her usual spot. "And she will tell you 'no'. Know why?" We both shook our head. "Because she has not yet been visited by the Angel of Death. Until Death comes and tells me my son has passed, I will not believe what that Palace tells me. It's an old Vinkun truth."

"My mama's a Munchkinlander." I bit my cheek to keep from rolling my eyes. Just write your parentage on your forehead, Liir. "Will Death still visit her if she's not a Vinkun."

"She's still a mother." She said with another look at me. "How long have you two been searching?"

"Five and a half weeks." I got out.

"Five and a half weeks?" She gasped. "Are you close? Have you any leads?"

"Yeah, we're real close." Liir shared. My mother glanced at me as I warned Liir, but do you think he even listened? "She's in the City now. She escaped Southstairs about a week and a half ago."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. Liir watched his grandmother intently as he waited for her to do the math. Even if realization hit her, it never dawned on her face. She just stared back at Liir for a while with a quick glance in my direction before focusing back on him.

"How did you get in?" She snapped her attention to me again.

"The spare key in the loose brick." I whispered to the table like a caught child.

"How do you know about the spare key?"

"I've used it before." A grin spread over Liir's face as he realized what was happening.

"You've used it before?" She asked, her voice on the brim of crying. She turned back to Liir. "It's her? She's your mother." My mother raised her hand to her mouth and stifled a sob. "She was here!" She cried and turned back to me. "She was here three nights ago! She was here before we heard the bandits Ero and Liir had escaped from Southstairs." My mother touched my cheek. "Fiyero..." Even crying she was still lovely. "My baby boy."

**I'm on break from school and vacation from work...there's a possibility Elphaba might be here by Tuesday...if you keep the reviews coming...:)**


	13. Day Forty One

**This is really short. Mostly because it's an opener to the next two chapters after this. And sets up for the conflict they'll face with th Ozian government;)**

**Day Forty One**

I could smell her on the sheets. So I didn't move, even after the sun had rose. Even when my mother could be heard tending to the crying baby somewhere on the floor. Even after Liir had scrambled out of bed at the smell of eggs. Even after he had come back in to clean up. I stayed, because if I moved, I'd lose her again. I wouldn't be able to close my eyes and cling to the dreams of her, so I needed to stay there as long as I could, soaking up her scent. She had been here. I don't know how long ago, or for how long, but she had lain right here. I wondered if she had thought of me, too, as she was here resting. I was aware of Liir as he crouched down in front of me. I could see him, but I was looking past him. Clinging to every last hope that I would remember her scent long enough to find her. Like a hunter.

On the third morning, though, I was up before the sun was. I moved quietly through the house, leaving a note on the kitchen table, and then hurried back upstairs to finish gathering our belongings. Liir was fast asleep on his side of the bed. I took the change of clothes that my mother had found in the attic, the clothes that had once belonged to my father, and stuffed them in my satchel. I put a few toiletries in Liir's bag, along with a couple pairs of socks. The weather was getting colder and colder, we would need to double up our socks pretty soon. Most of the cabinets had been emptied last night after Liir had fallen asleep, and I had wandered around the room, thinking of what to do next. There were some things like mints, a comb, bandages, and little things that we might need if we didn't find shelter for the upcoming days. I left the food untouched, though. It didn't feel right stealing food from my mother. She and the princess needed it. And knowing my mother, there wasn't much here to begin with. She was probably on here for a couple more days.

"Liir." I squeezed his shoulder lightly. "Come on, bug, we need to go."

Liir stirred slowly, opening one eye to look at me. "What about grandma?"

"We'll see her again." I promised. "We need to find mama first."

Liir nodded and got himself up finally. I put an extra pair of socks on him and tied his shoes as he buttoned his shirt. We were out of the grove and back in the City by late afternoon.

"Do you think there's anything to worry about?" I asked a stranger that night. Liir and I had been asking around all day about the green woman being seen. Most of the poverty stricken criminals in the City had never heard of the 'Protegé', but they had heard of a green girl weaving in and out of alleys each day. "I mean, am I safe?"

The stranger shrugged and glanced around the empty alley. Liir was just at the end of the street, waiting for the meeting to finish. The stranger refused to let a child in this alley, saying it was for his own safety. So I gave Liir the locket and let him wait on the stoop of the nearest building.

"She's been here for a couple weeks, and there's yet to be a killing." He mumbled. One of the crooks had mentioned that the past few years criminals were being plucked off the street in the middle of the night. They were never seen or heard from again. "Seems to me that she's keeping the peace. I have heard of some getting out of the City, which is damned near impossible."

"You think she's getting them out?"

"I'm not saying anything except that before she showed up, we were all trying to leave. And now, I get wind of people writing from elsewhere." I nodded. "Just between us," I noticed him shift confidently. "People been talking about the Animal movement gaining speed again. If you ask me, this girl ain't no P_rotegé_. This is the real deal. This is the Witch. I told my second wife that no little farm girl could kill her." Of course she was aiding the Animal movement while trying to evade the authorities.

"You know where she shacks up?"

"If I did, I wouldn't be talking to you, would I?"

"Right," I agreed. I handed him over some coins, "Thanks, my friend."

"Remember me if she gets you out." He said. "I'll be here."

I promised him and headed back out to the street. The City was such a grand city, and there were so many back alleys. We could be searching for a month and still be a few steps away without knowing it. I just wished there was some way to pin point her. How many underground Animal movements were here? Probably one for each block. But it was a start, right? In the morning, Liir and I could start there. I'm sure all the organizations were connected anyway. They were all working towards the same common goal. Tonight, though, we needed to find a base area.

My stomach fell when I reached the street.

"Liir?" I called in a whisper.

It was dead still out. There was no traffic in the street, no sounds coming from the commonly populated areas, and no sign of my son. Taking my knife from my boot, I crept forward. A white cat sat on the welcome mat of the building directly across the street from the stoop I had last seen Liir. It stared at me as I checked in the nooks and crannies, behind trash bins and dumpsters, and in plain sight itself. I could feel my pace picking up, and my panic level starting to rise. It didn't matter how hard I tried to convince myself that this was nothing; that he was fine; or that he had just found something or someone who had caught his undivided attention. The truth of the matter was that I had lost Liir, too.

**I'll either be able to update on Friday or Sunday night...you just got to review:)**


	14. Day Forty Two

**This is kind of short, too, but longer than the last one!**

**Day Forty Two**

"Oz!"

I sat bolt up as the feeling of ice crashed over my body. I gasped for break and looked around wildly. The crook that Liir and I had shared a cell with only days ago stood over me with a scowl on his face. I glared back at him, using the dry part of my cloak to soak up the water on my skin. His damned cat sat a safe distance away from the splash of the water. All it did was stare at me. Which is more than I can say for the crook. He hadn't spoken a word since the cat brought me to him. Yes, brought me.

After I spent the better half of an hour looking in that secluded area for Liir, I made a rude comment to the cat. A comment that my wife definitely would have performed a waking vasectomy on me for. The cat took off running and then just stopped. It came back towards me, winding around my legs, then off again. Needless to say, I was sure it wanted me to follow it. We spent most of the night travelling southwest until we ended up at this hell hole flat. If you could call it that even. When I followed it into the flat, the crook was curled up in a corner. Sleeping under the day's headline. Of course this sad excuse for a creature own the cat. I threw a bucket of water to get him to wake up. Thinking back, I probably gave the rodent a nightmare after witnessing what Liir did back at the prison cell. Whatever. The crook hadn't spoken a word to me since our reunion. Even when I asked him if I could tag along with him. He merely looked to the cat and then nodded reluctantly.

At least I knew that damned cat was on my side.

"Are you going to talk to me today?" I asked as I laid some newspaper over the water that coated the floor.

He just stared at me.

"Well, as much as I love all the deep and meaningful conversations we've had," He frowned at my sarcasm. "I've begun not believing in coincidences, and you're cat brought me here." He glanced at his cat. It was perched on the window sill now, watching the both of us as if it understood the situation. "Come on, man, my son's missing."

"Witch." He finally coughed out.

I sighed, "Sure, if it makes you happy." He frowned at me again. "I've already lost his mother, I can't lose him, too. He's all I have of her." I started towards the door, "It's me." I added, thinking back on what he said in the cell. "And if you know me, then you know I'm not giving up until I have what I want."

The rodent snorted and rolled his eyes. I shook my head and hurried out, quickly grabbing my satchel and rushing out the door in a fluid motion. I should have never gotten hopeful with that stupid cat. I could have spent the entire night looking for Liir, and instead I let the stupid rodent lead me to the stupid rodent. I kicked the ground and picked up my pace. I was going to have to start back at square one. The only thing I was sure of was that no small time criminal had Liir. I would have heard him attempting to be taken. Only someone with skill could have taken that boy. He was too smart to be duped by some idiot criminal trying to make it in the City. Seriously, look at his parentage. So maybe I wasn't at square one completely. I knew I was going to have to rub elbows to get information. Read between the lies the newspapers would print. My stomach tossed uncertainly, though. I had a horrible feeling of where I was going to have to start my search, and it was the last place I wanted to go back to.

Somewhere behind me, a door slammed shut. It was amazing the distance a few blocks made. Four blocks to the east and you'd be arrested for slamming-

I stumbled forward, nearly losing my balance completely, as the rodent shoved my shoulder and continued booking it down the road. He shouted something over his shoulder that had me stopping dead in my tracks. I hadn't heard the name in years. Like years and years. Not even my wife knew the name. So the fact that this crook knew it had my head reeling. Swallowing my emotions I started after him. He ran like quicker than any antelope I remembered in the Vinkus. Dare I say it, I was actually having a hard time keeping up with him as he weaved up and down streets and alleys. I lost track of direction after the sixth or seventh sharp turn down alleys. Just when I thought my lungs were going to collapse, the rodent came to a stop just outside of a house that looked like it was made especially for a Gillikinese. A part of me fluttered with hope when I saw the pink ivy climbing up one of the sides of the house.

"Idiot." He grunted, catching his own breath. "Right triangles." He took another deep breath to even out his heart beat.

"What?" I sneered.

"Right triangle's legs' square is right triangle's hypotenuse's square." He said. "Lenx's 101. Absentee." He added in an after thought.

It struck me. The way he spoke told me that he had lost his mind ages ago; and his voice was rough from not being used very much, but through the manner and tone, I knew exactly who it was. I stared at him in a sort of anxious shock as he started towards the front door. He looked nothing like what I remembered. Like, nothing at all. I brought my hand up to my own face. Well, I had changed significantly, too. It was reasonable. But how did he? I looked back up at the pink ivy growing on the structure. No. No way. Not her. I squinted at it, as if it could tell me what I was seeing. I looked back to the Munchkin walking. Call me crazy but suddenly, he was even less trustworthy than originally. And let me tell you, he wasn't all that trustworthy to begin with. We don't have the best history. And last time I saw him...Oz...last time I saw him, he had a vendetta against the Wicked Witch of the West.

"Hurry up!" He barked, bringing me out of my thoughts, when he reached the front door. "Not twice."

I glanced around nervously. What did I have to lose?

He was so scrawny. I mean, he had always been small in stature, but he was _scrawny. _It was like he hadn't seen a decent meal in years. I could count the bones under the tightly drawn flesh that was visible to my eye. I'd hate to see what his chest and back looked like. I thanked him as he ushered me into the dwelling. He had a funny odor to him, too. I couldn't quite say what it was, but it was pleasant at all. There were so many things wrong with him. He looked better off as a chunk of tin, honestly. I wanted to know how someone could be so well off and then completely spiral into this. But I knew the answer. I'd gone through it. We had a common denominator, but I'm sure we looked at her in different respects. Obviously.

Wherever we were was definitely decorated by the blonde herself. The entrance way was a pale pink with dark wood floors. Sure, plenty of people pair pink with a dark wood floor; but it was the green design on the walls that had be sure of her presence. There wasn't a thing out of place, either. The mirror on the wall was perfectly positioned to welcome you right when you walked in the door. I avoided looking at myself in it. Even the coat stand and plants were in just the right position to give off an old classic appeal to the room. Nothing contrasted. It all blended well together.

"Is this Glinda's place?" I asked quietly, admiring the design on the wall.

"Blue moon." He muttered, tapping various parts of the floor.

I nodded. "So where's your cat?"

He ignored me and pulled up one of the floor boards, reaching in to grab a set of keys. Such a creep. I followed him again while he lead the way through the house. The further into the house we got, the more convinced I was that it was Galinda's. I had't seen so much pink in my life. And all different shades and patterns of it, too. I never understood her love of pink, and I don't think I ever would. There was just so much of it. My wife would hurl at being surrounded by so much of it. I was stopped roughly outside of a room, and he shut himself in it. A minute or so later, he returned holding a wad of fresh clothes, shoes, and a fine cloak. I was about to reject them, but something on the cloak caught my eye. Dropping the rest on the floor (which earned me a cry of exasperation from him), I looked closer at the fabric.

"This is from the Vinkus." I said then looked up. "This was my cloak." He stared at me. "She kept it?" I looked back down. "Look, Biq.."

"Boq."

"Whatever. I appreciate you bringing me here and giving these to me, but I don't have time to doll myself up. I need to find my son."

"Cat."

"Cat?"

"_Cat._" He snapped. I threw my arms in the air and dropped the cloak to the ground. I didn't have time for this. He obviously wasn't going to help, so I'd have to find someone who would. I'd only gotten a few steps when the shoe hit me dead in the back. "Not cat, _Cat_! Horrible Cat." He barked.

I paused. "You sent a Cat my way?" I sneered.

He shrugged. "Heart for a heart."

"Listen, you stupid little wank," I rounded on him. He scurried away from me, successfully backing himself into a corner. "She saved you. You would have been deader than your little girlfriend."

"You stink!" He spat out. I recoiled a little, I can't lie. I come at him all dark and intimidating, and he tells me that I stink? To say I was taken aback would be an understatement. He brushed past me and picked up the clothes I had dropped. He took off his cloak, revealing an inmate uniform. "Criminals stink." Then he picked up the top. It was a uniform. A Gale Force uniform. "Gale Forcers bathe."

**Boq's story is kind of tragic and doesn't really get better. I just wrote it in a doc, and it'll be told by Glinda when she's finally introduced. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love his character but not everything can be sunshine and bunnies. **

**Also, Liir will be back next chapter! His Elphaba genes will show. Big time. Think Kristallnacht big...**

**Please review!:)**


	15. Day Forty Seven

**Hello:) Thank you so much for all the reviews!**

**I don't say it in Fiyero's narrative, but just assume that he had multiple attempts to stay in the palace. I mean, like five days passed. **

**Day Forty Seven**

There are exactly fifty-eight different ways into the Emerald Palace. Ten ways were from Munchkinland, like right from some cornfield. Eight had to be accessed from the sewers, which Biq refused to let me go down into. No Gale Forcers trapezed about in the sewers unless they were forced to. A handful of others were traps for criminals, taking them straight into a cell without a capable way out. Certain people could only get through some entrances, they were charmed to keep intruders out. I was told that I didn't even want to attempt to cross those thresholds. He had been so cryptic when he said it, I wondered if that what happened to him. I mean, he was never had a way with words, but he had never been completely out of a vocabulary. Anyway, the rest were spilt between entrances heavily guarded by man and magic and ones that were barred from everyone but Horrible Morrible and her horrible magic. It left one entrance for me to get through.

The front entrance.

I stood across the street from the palace, hiding in the shadows of an alley, rerunning the palace's blue prints. How many times had I walked the halls when Glinda and I were living there? Was she there now? Would she recognize me? I straightened up as some citizens of the City passed me and nodded their heads in recognition. I winked at a little girl who ran by, waving frantically and smiling widely. I wondered if that's how our next child would have turned out. A small, little, care-free girl with long hair and her mother's awkward agility. I swallowed the thought and stepped out of the shadows, intent on getting my son and resuming out search for his mother.

The papers had been printing his capture for the last few days. I stole a glance around. They left out all vital information and lied about some things, but they all held the truth that he was being held at the palace for questioning. Not once did they articles mention his age or his size. I guess it didn't really matter. The people of Oz would feel whatever sentiment they were told to feel. So if that meant hating a seven year old boy, they would.

"About time you showed up." A Gale Forcer groaned as I easily stepped inside the palace. I froze a little and watched him as he slackened. "They're faster than the Protegé." He shook his head.

"Yeah," I muttered dumbly, losing my accent.

"I don't know where they're at know." He shrugged and glanced around. "If anyone asks, just say you're playing hide and seek."

The Gale Forcer left without a second look. I stopped my hand before it reached my face. It couldn't believe I was that different. But maybe this kid had never really gotten a good look at me. He was really young, probably hadn't even been to Shiz when I left Oz. It all worked out in my favor, though, didn't it? It got me in the palace without trouble. I fixed my uniform until it was pristine and straight, then I set to looking about for Liir.

I passed a few aides who nodded at me as they passed, but they mostly kept to themselves and whatever they were doing or whoever they were talking to. It was ridiculous how easy it was to get in here with a uniform. The answer to why, though, was answered as I passed a room the Wizard had used to entertain guests back in the day. I stopped dead just outside the doorway, looking in at the person sitting on the couch with a teacup and saucer in her hands. She had been perched on the edge of her seat, lightly smiling at whoever she was talking to. I'm sure the sound of my boots caught her attention, or maybe it was fate, and made her look up. But there she was, and she knew it was me. I was never more sure of anything these past few days. The color from her face drained a little, and I could see the gears in her head working. I blinked and strode away before her pause in the conversation she was having became too awkward.

There was a little hallway that lead to the room where I had found her all those years ago. Where everything changed. It was about a mile in length, but it took you to a small space where you could listen in on whatever was happening in the room. That was where I knew I needed to go. I could feel it in my stomach. I didn't so much as step into the hallway when a tall, lanky man passed me. He snapped his fingers and pointed in the direction he had been walking. It took me a minute to understand I was supposed to be following him. I hurried, lengthening my strides to match his. He was a very ugly man. And I mean that in all seriousness. And not because I'm comparing him to myself. Oz, I could compare him to Biq, and ugly would be at the top of the list still. I noticed the wedding band on his finger. Who would marry him? I shuddered involuntarily, but he didn't notice. Ugly must have clouded his vision.

"I trust you know that what you see and hear stay within this room." He stated.

I nodded, because I didn't know how I was to address him.

"Very well." He grinned. It was an awful grin. "Stand down." He told two other guards standing in front of a room. "I'll be right out, stay here." He said to me. I nodded again, receiving a funny look from him.

When the door closed behind him, one of the guards shoved my shoulder, "What you do you think you're doing?" He hissed. I stared at him. "You answer when he talks to you, and none of those damn head nods. Who was your superior in training? You know what, never mind. You want Her High Sorceress to hex your balls off for improperly regarding her husband, my by guest."

Oh.

The guard next to him snorted.

"You think I'm kidding?" The first one snapped. "You go ask Sponce if I'm kidding."

"Sponce hasn't been around in a week."

"Exactly." He rolled his eyes. "Would've never happened under Glinda." He added hotly.

"Well, the second the Protegé attacks, you know where my loyalties will go." The second one said quietly, and the first one nodded his head in agreement.

"If she attacks." I chimed in.

"Oh, she will, newbie." The first one assured me. "I can feel it. Especially with the plans they have for that one in there." He nodded his head down the hall. I glanced. It was the holding room. "I'm sure she'll come with a full force the second they're finished. They say he's her kid, you know?"

I nodded but didn't have time to answer before Master Morrible was out of the room. He was holding Liir's satchel and something in his clenched fist. "Shall we?" He asked me.

"Yes, you Highness."

Master Morrible laughed, and the two guards rolled their eyes at me. Well, what was I supposed to call him?

"Who are you?" His Horrible Ugliness asked as we continued down the hall off the hall that lead to the room.

"Baako." I said, thinking of the first name that came to mind. My father's. "You Morribleness." I added.

He laugh again, "Master Morrible works just fine, too."

Liir was sitting in the middle of the room on a stool when we walked into the holding room. He stared straight through us with the same cloudy expression he had in the jail cell. I glanced about, making sure there was no water around. Morrible said something, and Liir was brought out of his daze. He looked slowly from Morrible to me and then back to the spot he had been staring at. There were trays of untouched food around him. It was just bread and beans, but it looked like Liir was refusing anything given to him by his captors. Which is fine and dandy, but he clearly didn't think about how he was going to stay fueled. He had dark circles under his eyes, and his skin (where it wasn't bruised) was even paler than it had been in the past couple of weeks. If this is what he looked like after a few days, I couldn't have come later. Biq sure did have timing down.

Morrible laid of the contents of Liir's satchel on a small table a few feet away and pocketed whatever had been in his fist.

"You're quite fond of this woman, aren't you, boy?"

Liir glared at him.

"I'm not above beating you, boy." Morrible said, more like a reminder.

Liir sent me a wary glance, but he looked back at Morrible without saying a word.

Morribe waited a moment before handing me a small piece of wood. It was more like a ruler than anything. But he handed it to me and nodded to Liir, who had the inside of his wrists out and facing upwards. He wanted me to hit my child? He wanted me to hit my child. I stared at Liir. Morrible was too busy going through the things in the satchel to notice me.

Liir finally spoke up. "It looks like your guard is just as incapable of punishment as you are at ruling."

I didn't even have time to react to the statement, because no sooner than it left Liir's mouth, the back of Morrible's hand was shining on Liir's already bruised skin. My son didn't even so much as flinch. He held the same frown he had since we walked in.

"When I give you that, you utilize it." Morrible sneered. I glanced down at the ground and mumbled an apology. Moreso to my son. "His power is in his hands, we must keep him from being able to use it."

Liir smirked.

"All of your belongings are interesting." Morrible rocked on his heels in front of Liir with his hands in his pockets. "I was a student at Shiz a very long time ago. My specialty was history, so the essays you have are quite interesting to me. The writer was brilliant." Liir only stared. "Of course, as I said, all of your belongings are interesting. But do you want to know what interested me the most?" Liir's expression clouded again as Morrible pulled out the locket.

I tensed up, thankful to be out of Morrible's line of vision.

"At first, I couldn't understand what a silly boy would want with a simple locket. But then I opened it." He did and pulled out my vows. "Do you what makes this special, boy?" Liir remained unresponsive. "The paper. The Bad Lands is the only place in the world that produces this paper. We've tried ordering it from them for decades, but they are stingy and refuse every offer. So, you see, it's puzzling that you have this. Do you know why?" No answer. "The Witch, of course. This woman is the Witch." He tapped my wife's signature. "And Fiyero Tiggular...Prince Fiyero Tiggular, well, boy, he's dead."

I couldn't tell if Liir was breathing. He was so still, and I couldn't even remember the last time I saw him blink. He was just staring dead straight.

"But here are their signatures and on this kind of paper no less." Morrible squatted in front of Liir. "You know what I'm starting to think?" Still nothing. "I'm starting to think that you are not the son of the Protegé and Ero." I flickered my attention between the two. "Well, not really. Not originally. Actually, though, I do believe that these are your parents." He dangled the locket and paper in front of Liir. "So where are your parents, boy? Where is your brainless father and wicked mother?"

Liir's gaze left the spot he had trained them on, but only to glare at Morrible. And spit at him. Which earned him another back hand. I closed my eyes and wondered why he had to be so much like his mother at times.

"Do you want to know what we did to your mother when we caught her?" Liir's jaw tightened, which earned a smirk of satisfaction from Morrible. "She had come to meet the Good, just like she always did, and we tagged her before she even realized it and stole a piece of loose fabric from her cloak." He pulled it out of his pocket and sniffed it like a Tracker would. "And then we let her run. Run for two days." I could feel my insides twitching to give him hell. "And then we let the Trackers go." Liir didn't so much as blanch, but I did. I knew what Trackers did to their prey. "It took them half of a day to hunt her down. And boy were they excited to finally find her." He had a dark laugh. Much different than the one he had when he was mocking my ignorance.

There was something going on in Liir's head. I could see it clear as day from my spot next to Morrible. My son's eyes had lost their haze, and a new emotion had enveloped him. I wasn't familiar with it, I had never seen it, and I can honestly say I wished I'd never see it again. It was a purely Liir emotion. Not even his mother had this. Not that I'm aware of, at least. But as Morrible continued to tell Liir what Trackers were capable of, and what horrible things that his mother endured because of the Trackers, Liir's newfound emotion became stronger and stronger. He was starting to shake lightly, the emotion getting the best of him, taking control over him. Morrible, I'm sure, was loving every minute of it. Then he mentioned the miscarriage. And every molecule in Liir's body oozed the feeling.

The loathing.

The total detestation.

The hatred.

But it stopped.

It was like Liir had sucked it back in, and everything was quiet for a second before all hell broke loose. It was like every moment Liir had spent in here was building up to this one. There was that second of complete and terrifying silence before a sound, resembling a rock smashing glass, pierced through. Morrible was up in a flash, glancing around, trying to find the source of the sound. I did, too. There was nothing out of place. No one had walked in, no one had left. Everything was exactly as it was when I followed Horrible Morrible's horrible husband into this Oz-awful room.

Everything was not fine, though. Because no sooner than Morrible let out a sigh of relief, chaos ensued. Forgetting the role I was supposed to be playing, I jumped to cover Liir as fire opened in the room. I had no clue what it was, but it was coming and coming fast. Morrible fell to the ground. I don't know if he had been hit, or if it was just instinct to get down. The whole thing didn't last long at all, looking back on it. But in the moment it seemed to go on for an eternity. I was acutely aware of all the sounds going on as I clutched Liir close, shielding him from whatever was happening. I could hear people shrieking, people crying, people calling for one another, but most of all I could hear glass shattering.

And then it stopped.

I waited a breath before lifting my head. Morrible was sprawled out on the ground. He was knocked out. But that was the least of my worries. All around us was glass. Green, shattered glass. I stood to my full height, turning around, taking in the room. All of it. All of the glass had been shattered. The only thing that remained was the ghostly looking structure that held the palace together. I was in awe. Liir did this. Liir did this. There was no getting around it this time. Liir did this. He was his mother through and through. I hadn't even noticed he was up and moving until I turned to where he had been. But he was already making to leave. With a quick kick to Morrible's stomach, he grabbed the locket and piece of paper and hurried to get his things, before beckoning me to follow him.

"No, this way." I ushered him towards an easier getaway.

We sat in the kitchen of Glinda's City home as Biq went about cleaning the shards of glass from the back of my neck. Liir stared at me like he was trying to figure out if I was mad at him for ruining the Emerald Palace, scared of him for ruining the Emerald Palace, or proud of him for ruining it. Well, I knew I wasn't mad. I wasn't afraid of him, that's for sure. But I wasn't exactly proud that my son had destroyed someone's home. Because not only did the Horrible Morribles live there, but their entire staff took refuge in that Palace.

"Glinda will probably be here tonight." I told Biq. If she normally stayed in that Palace, she wouldn't tonight.

"Horriblenesses."

"Them too?"

He nodded. "Boq in basement."

"Like an animal."

He glared at me. "Like criminal."

"Why are you a criminal?" Liir asked Biq. "I read that you were actively against the Wicked Witch of the West." He said the last part with the intent of making the Munchkin regret it.

Biq stared at Liir and then looked back at me, "Doesn't work." He muttered.

"He's not scared of you." I told Liir. Of course he's not. He lived with Nessarose for Oz knows how long. I'm sure my wife doesn't even scare him. Only the threat of death. Because it would mean he'd never see Glinda again.

"Why are you a criminal?" Liir repeated with a softer tone.

Biq patted the back of my neck with a warm cloth and replaced my hand with his. "Smart."

"You're smart?" Liir asked and received a nod. "You don't seem very smart to me."

"Liir!"

Biq glared again. "To know truth, to be criminal." He mumbled bitterly. "Flesh, tin, flesh. Innards, hollow, innards." He put his hand on his chest. "Heart, no heart, heart." His hand fell to his side. "Aberration."

"You remembered what happened to you." I dropped the cloth and leaned against the counter with complete interest.

"Wicked Witch."

"Nessarose."

"Nessa." He nodded.

"So you spoke out?"

"Only Glinda."

"Believed you?" Liir asked gently. Biq traced lines on the counter, clearly done with that part of the conversation.

"Turning back was painful, wasn't it?" He looked at me with apprehension. "You turned back a few months after everything happened, didn't you? You felt like you were being ripped piece by piece and then sewn together again, right?"

"Among others." He added vaguely. I figured he meant his mind. Obviously something had happened to it at some point or another.

"What happened to you?" Biq stopped what he was doing when I asked the question, looked to me, and then out the window at the horizon.

"Should go." He said quickly. "You two." He scrambled to clean up the mess in the kitchen. "Looking for you. Boy's boom. Attention from her."

"Mama?" Liir perked up.

"Who are you talking about, Biq?"

"Go!" He barked.

And so we were off again.

**Almost there! If I get lots of reviews...a certain someone might be back before the weekend is out...;)**


	16. Day Fifty Four

**_As promised!:) _**

_**Day Fifty Four**_

I would never get use to not being completely recognized. I had grown up turning heads and drawing attention to myself whereever I walked. But ever since returning to Oz, most people didn't even look twice. I studied myself in the broken glass of the alley as I waited for Liir. You could say that my features had matured. If anything, I reminded myself of my father when he was my age. Which isn't a bad thing. Mother always said that my father was the most handsome man in all of Oz, and there's even headlines to back that statement up. I sighed. As horrible as it is, I relished when we passed people on the streets, and they would have to stop what they were doing to take a second look at me. Maybe it's egotisitcal of me, but it helps to know that I've never truly left the minds of the people of Oz.

Liir ran back into the alley, carrying a newspaper and an old canteen. He ducked behind the boxes on the opposite side of the alley just before a few bigger boys came stampedeing from the street. They were shouting and hollering about a 'rat'. I pointed them towards the end of the alley but kept my eyes on my reflection as the boys came closer. I think they muttered something close to a thank you, but their lumbering footsteps overshadowed any other sound. They were gone a few long minutes before Liir's little head poked out and looked around.

"You can't keep stealing from thugs, Liir." I told him with a frown.

He wiggled out of the boxes and tossed me the newspaper. "Only the thugs have canteens. You want to know why you don't see anyone smaller than me with a canteen? Because all the lard heads take them. I'm forced with only stealing from them." He shot back.

"You're going to get yourself killed." I mumbled, flipping through the paper to the reports. Liir sat on the ground next to me and put the canteen in my lap.

"Anything?" He asked.

I skimmed the reports again. "A witch was burned last night."

"That's what the smell was?"

"Yeah," Just the thought of skin burning made my stomach turn. Not even the water seemed appetizing. "Another one was sent to Southstairs. A crook and a rapist were taken into custody."

"And probably released this morning." Liir added sourly.

I tapped the paper when I found something. "_'The two bandits, Ero and Liir, thought to be associated with the Witch's Protege were spotted last week crossing into the Vinkus through the Great Kells. They were seen travelling on foot, and we believe they were on their way to Kiamo Ko for unknown reasons. The Gale Force assures citizens of Oz that the two will be caught and contained by the start of the new year and that while his Magnificentness is in power, no citizen of Oz will be harmed by these men. __Authorities are still unsure of the bandits' reasons for association with the Protege, but they are believed to be nefarious in nature._

_The Protege herself was also spotted on the border of Ugabu and the Vinkus around the same time the bandits were sighted. Having escaped from Southstairs not but three weeks ago, we do believe that she is being aided by jinxed carriage drivers in her efforts to get where she's going. His Magnificentness is in talks with his advisors about passing an ordainance that would protect travellers and drivers alike from the Protege's curses. Citizens are asked to keep themselves well protected and be on the look for the Protege. Her current form is pictured below. As with her former, we advice Ozians to be equipped with a bucket of water.'"_ I put the paper down, and Liir picked it up. He stared down at his mother's sullen face before tearing the photo from the paper.

"Did you see that-water will melt her?" I nodded with a sneer. "People are so empty-headed, they'll believe anything." He scoffed. I grinned.

"I heard about a whole neighborhood that's suffering more abandoned houses than full houses. I'm thinking we can stow away in one of them for the night." Liir nodded, still looking at his mother's picture.

"What's it like?"

"Hm?

"Southstairs." He said quietly.

I paused. I couldn't actually tell Liir about all the horror stories from that place. One of the eunuchs my parents had once hired had spent time in Southstairs. I remember him saying that if he went to sleep at night with broken fingers, fractured ribs, and no food...it had been a good day. I was five when he told me his story, and I had about five months worth of night terrors afterwards.

"It's not pretty, bug." I told him reluctantly. "The fact that your mama escaped just goes to show how strong and smart she is."

"If she would just find us, I would tell her how smart and strong she is everyday."

"I know, bug." I kissed his temple and rose to my feet. "Come on, let's go get some food and shelter before night falls."

There was an eerie stillness over the house as Liir and I came in from picking up a loaf of bread from the old lady at the end of the block. Well, we stole it, but words were a technicality, and I wasn't one to care about the little things like that. It wasn't the eerie silence that said someone is in the house, though. Okay. So when you're hunting, you pick up on signals in the wind, in the terrian, in your stomach. Prey didn't have to be within a mile, but you felt them coming before hearing them or seeing other animals flee from it. That is exactly how the house felt. Liir made to run into the kitchen to carve the bread, but I snatched his wrist before he could make it very far or even make a sound on the creaky floor boards. I had a fear that we'd be heard and captured. And getting caught was not in my five year plan.

"We'll get the bread later, bug." I whispered, leading him down the hall.

I poked my head in rooms, scoping out hiding places. Most of the rooms were either bathrooms or empty with only a nail or two in the wall. We moved upstairs where life was evident. Two rooms had abadoned bedsets. One room made up like a studio apartment. One bathroom. Three rooms done up like sitting rooms. Much better. One of the sitting rooms looked like it had been used recently. There was a scent in the room that could only be explained by someone being in it. I tugged Liir after me as I entered the room. The smell was really the only thing that gave the inhabitant away. Liir set both pieces of his mother's broom down as we each looked around with our own will. There was almost a familiar smell to the scent. I couldn't place my finger on it. It was from the Vinkus, that much I knew. But the name and specifics were beyond me.

The blanket in one corner of the only couch was still warm from use. I tossed it back down. We couldn't assume the person had deserted. We had to treat this house just like every other one we broke into. Even though no one had owned it in many years, someone else was still using it. Liir was examining a book when I looked over at him. I beckoned for him to put it back the way he found it. Blankets were easy to bypass when you were checking to see if things were left in the same manner, but books were a different story. It could have been lined up and adjusted perfectly to warn of an intruder.

"Someone else lives here?"

I nodded. "It seems so."

"Do you think they'll have some peas?"

"I don't think so, bug." I squeezed his shoulder as I passed him and went to the window.

"We shouldn't have given them to that stupid Animal." He grunted, indicating the poor Fox we came into contact with the other day. I rolled my eyes. I swear, the longer we were away from his mother, the more moodified he became.

"If your mother hears you talking like that, she's going to have no hesitations about kicking your butt." I warned him.

Liir opened his mouth to say something, but a noise downstairs cut him off. I snapped my head in the direction of the stairs and my heart started racing.

"Daddy?" Liir's voice was barely audible, but my ears heard it as a scream. I didn't wait for him to move his own legs, in a swift motion, I scooped him up and held him close as I edged closer to the hallway.

I could hear the person pacing downstairs, their boots sounding then stopping, sounding then stopping. When the steps were the loudest I moved out of the room quickly and quietly. No change in the pacing happened when we made it to the the bathoom, the room across from the room we had been in. A momentary relief washed over me. We could climb out the window. I could make a rope from the towels and linens and shower curtain, all the material in the same room as me. The building wasn't too incredibly tall for being in the City. I mean, I think we could make a decent sized rope from the material. It was the first good sign we'd been given in a while. It was short lived.

"The broom!" Liir gasped, obviously not understanding the concept of sneaking around. Neither his mother nor I could account for that gene. Again, his voice wasn't loud but loud enough. Just as I feared, the pacing stopped downstairs and footsteps on the stairs were heard.

For the love of Oz.

Liir read my panic like I wore it on my shoulder. Tears welled up in his eyes when the realization of what kind of situation he just put us in washed over him. Hitting him like a ton of yellow bricks. I shook my head, holding my finger to my lips.

'_It's okay.' _I mouthed the words and pressed a kiss to his forehead.

The footsteps stopped at the top of the stairs. I could imagine the man looking into his room and finding the broom halfs sitting there in the middle of the floor where Liir had left them. I closed my eyes and listened to his footsteps walk around his room as I held Liir close to my chest tightly. The man probably had the broom pieces in his hands right now and was checking to see if the book had been moved. It had. I don't know how Liir put it back, but it obviously wasn't how the man had left it. Something hit the wall in that room and the footsteps sounded again, across the hall, I'm assuming.

We were planted there for Oz knows how many minutes. My knees were sore from the awkward position we were in, and I wasn't sure how long I could hold the pose. I picked Liir back up as I listened to the footsteps fade down the hallway. He was checking room by room. Liir clung to me like a bandage as I creeped across the bathroom to peer out the door. It was nearly silent, except for the sounds of the man searching whichever room he was in now, and I stole the moment to go back downstairs.

I could feel Liir's tears seeping through the break in material of my cloak as his body started shaking with silent sobs. I rubbed his back soothingly as I quickly tip-toed down the stairs. My heart was pounding with each step I took. What were the odds that this man was nice? You didn't come across many hospitable tramps in this part of the City, but there was always that small chance, right? A shiver escaped me when we finally reached the bottom step. I couldn't shout for joy, but boy did I want to.

"Hurry!" Liir's barely audible and muffled response came to the sound of boots hitting the the stairs.

My heart lept in my throat and a hiss escaped my mouth when I touched the door knob. It was scorching! As if someone had held a torch underneath is for a long time. Liir scrambled out of my arms and grabbed my other hand to drag me into the second room in the hallway connecting the back area to the front. We It was another bathroom. I pulled us into the corner between the door and the tub as something from the front room crashed with a loud _bang._ Liir clamped his hand over his mouth and closed his eyes tightly as I held onto him. We would get through this. We would survive this. We would see her again. We would see her again, alive.

And then there was silence.

I looked around the bathroom we were in. We could probably jump out the window safely. _'Stay here.' _Liir grabbed my cloak roughly as I was halfway up. He shook his head insistently.

Even if I wanted to go look out the window, my chance was robbed when something clattered to the floor. Effectively drawing attention to the bathroom. I snapped back down and craned my neck to see what it was. The button from my cloak that had been threatening to come off all week. Really? Really? I glared up at the cieling. Thank you, Lurline, I really understand your love now.

No sound came, though, aside from our breathing. No footsteps. No sound of fabric. Whereever the man was, he obviously hadn't heard the button drop. Taking a deep breath, I contorted my body to reach out to grab the button. There was a chance the man wouldn't check in here if he saw no sign of disturbance. I turned my body, dropping deeper into a squat as I did, and stretched long to retrieve the bottom. Right when the tips of my fingers felt the edge of the button, a foot slammed onto my outstretched fingers. It came on so quick that I hadn't even heard it approaching. I let out a howl, which Liir echoed with his own high pitched one. Mostly from shock, but the pain of the rough hand-to-boot contact couldn't be ignored.

What I'm assuming was the broom, from the sound it made on impact, crashed to the ground as the boot quickly moved away from my hand. I flexed and unflexed my hand as the door slammed shut behind the owner of the boot. Now on her knees, staring wildly at me.

"Fiyero?"

She wasn't real. She wasn't real. You know those dreams you get that are so vividly real? So vividly real that you can smell the sweet green tea she just drank. So vividly real that you can feel the heat radiating off her body. So vividly real that you can see each hope and fear in her eyes. So vividly real but you know the second you move to capture that moment, everything would vanish. The dreams you wake up from but close your eyes tight, willing the dream to come back to you just for one more precious minute. Those dreams. I never thought I was crazy. Some of the things I put myself through or other people through could be considered crazy. But just the act. Never me.

I wasn't crazy, though. She was right in front of me. Fifty four days of wandering through Oz. Out running trackers, Gale Forcers, and people we wronged. And here she was. Fifty four long days of constantly second guessing myself as to whether or not all this searching would bring something up. Fifty four days of holding my son as he cried. Fifty four days. Not even eight weeks. In reality, it's not long at all. But, Lurline, did they seem like a life sentence. Fifty four long days.

"Fiyero?"

Her voice was so familiar but so foreign. I couldn't speak or move. All I could do was stare at her. Making sure she was right. Her dark hair, her dark eyes, the small scar at her hairline from the boy in plot six, her skin. Everything was there. Locomotion slammed back into me with the force of a train. I grabbed the hand she had partially outstretched, as if afraid to touch me. Forming from the same fear I had of blinking. She didn't fade away, though, as I held her hand in mine. She stayed right where she was.

I opened my mouth to say something but nothing came out. This was real. She was actually here. I could barely wrap my mind around it, and apparently my ability to speak was still in shock. I brought my hand up to her neck, feeling the beautifully smooth skin there for the first time in a long time. She froze, and for a split second I feared she'd disappear. It came and left in a breath, though, before she threw herself at me with a soft sob escaping from her throat. It took me a split second to register her body against mine, her arms wrapped around my neck, her breath tickling my sensitive hairs...

It hit me, though. "Elphaba," I croaked out, pulling back and staring at her. I smiled in bewilderment. It was the first time I'd said her name in fifty four days. "Elphaba." I repeated, running a thump over her cheekbones. "Elphaba." I closed the distance between us.

It was the first time I'd kissed Elphaba in fifty four days.

** Please review? :)**


	17. West

**Thank you so much for your support! I'm glad you're happy she's back:) **

**If you don't care about the lack of use of Elphaba's name in the past, skip the next section. **

**So, because I don't plan on Fiyero going too deep into his psyche to explain this, Elphaba is back. Proper noun and all. All of you, hopefully, have probably noticed that the end of the last chapter was the first time he used her name in a narrative. I intentionally wrote it that way. I had to read some article and dissect it a year ago about the power of a name, and that's something Elphaba has over him. Not just her physical form, but the emotional attachment he associates with her name. Because her name is her. And to him, saying her name was recognizing that she wasn't there. It had nothing to do with them spending the last decade-ish in the Bad Lands where names are irrelevant; because they're from Oz, the values and traditions of the Bad Lands weren't drilled in their heads.**

**Speaking of the Bad Lands, this story will continue:) Remember, they have no home to go back to. Once you've been gone a significant amount of time without word, the community repossess the cottage for the next family to come along. **

There was an uncomfortable silence in the room Elphaba had been sleeping in the past few days. Liir sat at the small table, a good distance away from his mother and me, watching us but somehow looking through. He'd been like that since we had been in the bathroom. At first I thought it was just emotional turmoil erupting in his mind. That was over an hour ago, though, and now he was still going through the motions of living. He hadn't reciprocated the hug that Elphaba had given him, his arms had just hung loosely at his sides. If she noticed, she didn't comment on it. Not that she would while he was still listening. I did have a momentary panic attack that he was going to blow up the whole damned building; but his silence was a cool and calm one. Not the tense and demented ones he went into before all Oz broke loose. Still, the silence wasn't welcome. Or, well, it was moreso odd than anything. He had been so excited to have her back, and now he was acting like he couldn't be bothered.

I was worried.

"Do you think you can fix it?" I asked Elphaba when I noticed her staring forlornly at her broom.

She slowly tore her gaze away from it, "I don't think so." She frowned. "It had a good long run."

"We found it in a cave." I told her. She nodded. "Along with a list of castles in the Vinkus."

Even in his numb state, Liir still managed to share his mother's sneer at the mention of more than one castle. Whether he knew it or not wasn't important. I grinned.

"It's where I was before they caught me." Liir glanced over at that. Elphaba played with her fingers in her lap, obviously recounting the memory. Her brow creased in concentration as she did so. She gave a dry laugh. "I didn't know you'd come after me."

"What else would we have done?" Liir snapped out of his reverie momentarily. He was a stone the second his mother looked over at him.

"Liir," Elphaba went over to him, kneeling before the clearly irritated boy. "Liir..." Liir turned his face away from her when she brought her hand to cup his cheek. "What's wrong?"

Liir's attention quickly focused on Elphaba. In the little time he stared at her, a breeze of emotions passed. I don't know if it was the intensity of each emotion or the actual emotions that I witnessed, but I have to say, I was a little startled. He glared at his mother ominously before it slid away, bringing forth the hurt and fragile child that had been in him for the past two months. Liir drowned that set of emotions, though, and brought back his anger. Even Elphaba was startled. I notice her lean away a fraction from him.

"Daddy," Liir said, his eyes not leaving Elphaba, "Are we going to see grandma again? I really miss _her._"

Elphaba stood up, her own eyes emotionless. Fantastic. Two temperamental rocks in the same room.

"You saw your mother?" She asked. "Did she..."

"Well, she knew who you were, didn't she?"

"I'm not that hard to recognize, Fiyero."

"Mothers are supposed to be able to find their children in the dark." Liir muttered bitterly before getting up and going over to the window.

"Liir." I reprimanded quickly.

Elphaba brushed it off, "It's fine."

"No, it's not." I bit, not meaning to snap at her, I just couldn't stop it. I grabbed Liir's arm with one hand and his still lightly bruised face with the other, forcing him to make eye contact. He was giving me that 'I dare you' look that worked well on other people, but it had no effect on me. I perfected it, afterall. "I don't know what your problem is, but your mother is hardly the one to take it out on."

"I don't have a problem." He grunted, spontaneously squirming in an attempt to break free. I only tightened my grip, which stopped him instantly.

"Knock it off." I warned as Elphaba made a quiet plea for me to let him go. Liir stole the opportunity to run. When I glanced over at his mother, he jerked violently out of my grasp and took off running. He only went down the hall to the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind him. Elphaba shook her head, telling me to let it go, when I looked at her.

I sat in the wooden chair next to the window later that night, watching the deserted street as I tried waiting for sleep to catch up with me. The house was still and silent again, the welcoming kind. It was a nice change from the past two months. The chair creaked when I shifted my weight from one side to the other or if I leaned back to try and get comfortable. Even with all the noise the old chair made, though, it was the only sound in the house aside from the scurrying of whatever mice lived in the walls. The tension Liir had been carrying around with him all day seemed to fade with the daylight, and after he had gone to sleep, I felt like I was able to take my eyes off of him enough to relax. It was crazy, I know, but I had this wild idea that he was going to lose control of whatever power he had and end up hurting his mother.

So the night was more than welcome.

He had fallen asleep on the couch after Elphaba and I had gone downstairs to make sure there was no way someone or something could get into the house while we were occupying it. She had placed some charms on the doors and jinxes on the windows. She said they were minor, because while she had used magic a lot since she'd been taken, she still wasn't as good as she once was. But what she did would make do, she assured me.

It was strange having her here. Like she hadn't been gone at all, but also like she was a stranger at the same time. I didn't know how to deal with it, so I pretended like I was unphased by it. We would fall back into a routine eventually, right? Liir would get over whatever he was feeling and things would be normal again. Right? I moved again, and the chair groaned. Of course, things were different. We moved one of the beds into the room she had been staying in, and Elphaba insisted on shoving it in the corner. She fell asleep with her back pressed tightly against the wall and breathing so it looked like she wasn't breathing at all. Back in the Bad Lands, she would either sleep on her back or snuggled up next to me, her chest rising and falling underneath her nightie. I knew she'd adopted this new sleeping style out of fear that she'd need to be ready to prance up at a moment's notice. It seems rather insignificant, but it was huge to me. How long would it be before I'd be able to hold her as we slept? Would she even let me?

There was another creak, but it wasn't from me this time. I turned my head towards the stairs. Liir was in mid-step, having stopped from the loud sound his steps had made. He gave me a sheepish grin before hurrying the rest of the way down and climbing into my lap. He was still silent, but I think this time it was from drowsiness and being caught in the state between asleep and awake. I kissed the crown of his head as he leaned against my chest, looking out at the street as a scrawny dog ran, away from or after something, before the house. I wrapped my arms around him after he shifted, so his face was pressed against my chest.

"How do you make up for lost time?" Liir finally asked after a few long moments had passed.

I rubbed his arm.

"What if it doesn't matter?" He added. "What if she just leaves us again?"

"She didn't leave us, bug." I whispered. "She was taken."

"She doesn't seem very happy to be back." He commented sourly.

I adjusted my arms around him and leaned back in the chair, "Do you remember when the Butcher hacked his thumb off because the lady from Central asked him to cut the meat Central needed extra thin, just for her." Liir nodded faintly. "Remember how it took him a while to get back in the game once his stub healed? He had to acquaint himself with the feeling of the cleaver; how thick or thin to cut certain meats; and how to get back to where he had been before the incident."

"Yeah." Liir said softly, comprehension not evident in his tone.

"That's mama." I assured him. "We've all been out of the game for so long that we need to take some time to remember what it's like. You and mama are so much alike, bug. You adapt quickly to situations and adopt them strongly in order to survive. So you need to remember that she didn't leave you, someone took her from us. She loves you so much, Liir, do you really think she would just up and leave without a warning?" Liir was silent for an unnerving minute, but he eventually shook his head. "And it's going to take her some time, but she'll remember that she has us, and we're not going anywhere without her. It'll be an adjustment, but we'll make it. We've made it this far, and we're not turning back."

Liir wrapped his arms around my neck and choked out a small sob that preluded a series of sobs, shaking his small body. I rested my cheek on his head, swayed him back and forth, and hummed some tune that had calmed him since he was born.

"I'm tired." He yawned when he pulled away and wiped his nose.

I chuckled, wiping some tears from his cheeks, "Let's go to sleep."

He slept between me and Elphaba that night.

.

"You broke his window?"

"We needed to get out!"

"Oz, Fiyero, we're not barbarians."

"He was going to get the authorities on us."

"For all his faults, Avaric would not turn you in to the Gale Forcers."

"You weren't there."

"And you weren't using your brain." She snapped back, after a moment, adding, "There's a shock."

Liir tugged me forward before I could retort.

"Avaric is just as much an enemy as Glinda." Elphaba said with a smug grin.

"Right." I snorted. "Because he clearly puts everyone else's interests before his own. I know Avaric, Elphaba."

"Obviously you don't." She snapped, pushing a few branches from the Oakhair trees out of the way.

Elpaba made a noise of indignation before moving in front of us, leading the way to Kiamo Ko. We had agreed that the best way to go was west, but we hadn't agreed on how to get there, which way to take, or even what to do once we were there. I wanted to call for my mother, and possibly even Glinda, and then just take time to refuel while at Kiamo Ko. Elphaba thought differently. Yes, she thought that going west was a good idea; but she thought everything else was terrible. She wanted to stay the night at Kiamo Ko and then cross the Vinkus to either Ugabu or Fliaan in the North, or stay south towards Ev. Either way, she did not forsee us staying in Oz and making contact with anyone.

The only thing that put us at a stalemate was Liir. If we went north, we'd have to cross the Thursk Desert, a land in which was populated by Yunamata. And the south was overrun by the Scrow. Both clans were pleasant and held a sort of comaradery when dealing political matters. Mother, father, and I always had nice trips when mother had business to attend to with any of them. They were even given free use of the castles (the same castles on the list. They were erected when my clan was in complete power, before the split) in their lands, save for one in each area. But dealing with them as royalty and dealing with them as nomads were completely different things. It's one of the reasons history books give for the splitting of the clans. Allegiances and and forms of punishment all scale differently.

I didn't know how different it could possibly be under Morrible, but under the Wizard, Yunamata loyalties were divided. Like with every group, there are those who were in favor of the Wizard, despite his frequent blind eye to 'Winkie'. But I can remember sitting in meetings with mother and father when they'd meet with the Scrow to discuss Yunamatas who were thought to be mercenaries for the Wizard. It never really seemed like a big deal when I was there, since I figured my parents would find a way to handle the situation. But if the Yunamata were primarily loyal to the Emerald City, then us being in their territory would be asking to get captured. And if we were captured, they'd send us right to Southstairs. They were peaceful in the sense that they had other people to do their dirty work for them.

The Scrow, I'm sure, hadn't changed. They had never been loyal to the City in the first place. In fact, unlike the Yunamata and Arjiki, only a handful of Scrow even learned to speak the same language as the rest of Oz. Although all Vinkuns believed that we were the first people, only the Scrow acted upon that belief. They thought everyone else should learn the language of the Vinkus. So when they needed an interpreter, they would hire someone who wasn't from the Vinkus. It was all very brave and noble; and between the two, I rather liked Scrows. But they didn't take kindly to unannounced visitors. Because when you're holding onto your heritage tightly, and when you're surrounded by assimilation and acculturation, everyone is a potential enemy. They wouldn't think twice before killing Liir. Elphaba would be fine. Any enemy of the state is a friend of the Scrow. I say that because Elphaba isn't exactly discreet. Well, her skin. I would be fine. The language of the Vinkus is my first language, and I look like a Vinkun. But Liir...

So as much as Elphaba did not want to stay at Kiamo Ko, or in the grasslands, staying close within Arjiki territory was our best option.

We spent most of the day walking. Elphaba leading, Liir holding onto my hand as we followed. She would always gather paces on us, but then all of a sudden she would slow down for us to catch up. She wasn't use to people. I knew it, so I didn't comment on it.

"We have to stay north of Kellswater, or we'll walk right into a Scrow stronghold." I told Elphaba after Liir had fallen asleep in a cave she had found. She seemed to know it so well that I figured she'd been here years ago before. Elphaba glanced up from the makeshift map of the Vinkus she had drawn in the rough forest ground.

"We'll have to go past the Cloister." She murmured, putting an 'x' where the Cloister would be.

"They won't call the authorities on us if they see us." I assured her. "They have no desire in getting involved in affairs of the state."

"Yes," She nodded. "But if their Unnamed God tells them we're no good, they will." I didn't ignore the bitterness in her voice.

"Then we travel at night." I sat down next to her. "We can take tomorrow to let Liir rest. I'll go to the village we passed and get some fruits and fill up the canteens tonight, and you stay with him-"

"No." She answered quickly, the color leaving her face. "We need to stay together." She added lamely.

I stared down at the map she had drawn, glad Liir was out cold and a few yards away.

"I saw what he did to the Palace." Her voice was even more hushed than it had been. "And heard about the guard at Southstairs."

There were a few breaths of silence as she waited for me to explain, and I waited for her to continue or try to pick out her emotions.

"If we stay in Oz, and something else happens, we'll draw attention to ourselves. Morrible is expecting another outburst. They're becoming common with him, Fiyero."

"I can guarantee they won't happen again." I said confidently.

"You can't possibly know that."

"But I do."

"Fiyero!" Elphaba snapped. "He destroyed a building and almost killed a man! He is a walking target, and we cannot stay in Oz with the risk of him being hunted."

"It won't happen again, Elphaba." I tried keeping my voice calm, hoping it would reflect on her. But it was useless. She was a firecracker.

"Finding each other isn't going to solve everything," She pleaded. "Just because we're together again doesn't mean the last couple of months have been forgotten. We're all still running from the law."

I pushed at a spot on Elphaba's hip where the trackers had gotten her. She let out an unexpected yelp before clamping her hand to her mouth. Elphaba glared at me as she moved a fraction of an inch away from me.

"Morrible told him about what happened when the trackers found you." I told her, and she placed her hand cautiously on her hip. "And the guard," I looked down at the ground. "The guard told him what happened."

Elphaba blanched as her hand moved to her abdomen, and the night suddenly became uncomfortable.

"When did you-"

"Then."

"Oh."

"I would have-"

"I know."

Quickly, Elphaba stood up and backed away from where I was sitting, alone now. "I better go check on Liir. He might panic if he wakes up and no one is there."

I nodded and watched her walk away from the conversation.

**Of course, contrary to Fiyero's belief, Liir will have another outburst. **

**Next chapter: Glinda and Avaric!**

**Review if you're still here and interested...please:)**


	18. Southstairs

**The end of this chapter is kind of randomly thrown in there, really. It is. But it sort of serves as a relief. But Fiyeraba is Fiyeraba:)**

**Things are going to kind of hold this heavy air to them in the next few chapters. Elphaba's going to be reviewing horrors that she went through over the past two and a half months, and Fiyero is going to have commentaries about certain things that may have people squirming. Like, next chapter he's going to recount what happened when he was captured by his own men and hung in the cornfield. So obviously, it'll be a bit brutal. Just a warning.**

**Elphaba skirts around her miscarriage in this chapter, but she still evades it. It'll come up later, though. **

I remember when Liir was first born. He was so tiny. So tiny and so tan. He grabbed my finger when I was stroking his little cheek, and from that moment on, I knew I would forever be his. Yes, someday he would grow up to be a man. He would have his own family eventually, he would be his own man; but he would always be my little boy. He would always be that little boy who wrapped his skinny fingers around my forefinger. There isn't even a way to describe how I felt at that moment when the midwife left the bedroom and let me in to see Elphaba and our beautiful baby boy. It was like I was meeting this intimidating person for the first time. What if he didn't like me? What if he grew up to hate me? What if liked me but didn't love me? Would I ever do something to let him down? There were just too many thoughts racing through my mind when I saw Elphaba propped up against the headboard with a bundle in her lanky green arms.

She had this look of fascination and fear in her eyes. This would be such a challenge for her. I knew it. She knew it. This was a baby that would be relying on her. Personally, I didn't see how it was too much different from her raising Nessarose, but the look she had in her eyes made me think that she didn't see this connection at all. She was going to be great, though. I had the faith in her that she would never have in herself. I sat down next to her, watching the little baby stare up at his mother with wide and curious eyes. I must have moved a certain way, though, because his eyes had immediately snapped to mine. They were the Vinkun blue that was common among the royal families of all three clans.

"Hi, baby." I had managed to make my voice say. It had sounded strained, but I was still in a state of awe. This was my son. This was my blood, flesh, and bone. Elphaba and I had done this. "He's beautiful."

She just nodded.

"Hi, baby." I repeated with a wide smile. "You can call me daddy." Elphaba let out a laugh. "Can I?" I asked, looking at her hopefully.

She gave me a funny look before saying, "Of course."

He was so light. So light and so beautiful. I settled him nicely in my arms and stood up, showing him around the room. I showed him the bathroom, telling him it's where his mama turned me from a sack of straw to a flesh and bone man. I showed him the wardrobe where we kept our clothes. The window where the moonlight poured in every night and gave his mama a kind of otherworldly shine. Elphaba had rolled her eyes at that. She watched me carefully as I took him across the hall to see the nursery, where he would be staying until he was old enough to have his own house. I let him know it wasn't for many more years, so we'd keep this room up to date as he grew from baby to toddler, toddler to child, child to adolescent, and adolescent to teen. "See?" I had said. "You have a while." And he just blinked up at me. I showed him the washroom that was for him and the people who came to visit. But the majority of the time it would be his. I showed him the kitchen, the living room, fireplace, and the nook. It was his home.

"Sorry," I grinned when I walked back in the bedroom. Elphaba was lying on her side, staring at the door. The corner of her mouth twitched into a small smile. "I just wanted to give him the grand tour."

"I wouldn't have expected any different." She said weakly.

"You should sleep." I crouched next to her and kissed her forehead.

"I was thinking we should name him."

"He'll be here when you wake up." I promised. I kissed her lips gently. She nodded reluctantly. "I'll put him in the bassinet, and we'll get him when you wake up. Okay?" She nodded again.

I was up and headed towards the door when Elphaba called for me again, "Yero?"

"Fae?"

"Will you bring the bassinet in here? We have so much room in here, and I would hate to miss a first." She gave a light shrug. "He might talk or something, and I'll be in here."

I smirked at her, "Of course, love."

I had gone into the living room to write to Central about his birth, and to find money to pay the midwife, and just how much extra food I thought we would need a week. When I was done with the letter, calculations, and money hunting, I walked back into our bedroom. Elphaba had moved Liir from the bassinet to the open space on the bed next to her, snuggling him close to her.

Seven years later and nothing had changed. The two of them had been falling asleep on opposite sides of the room in each dwelling we claimed for the night, and in the morning, Liir would be firmly nestled up against his mother or sandwiched between us. It never failed.

So it only irked me more that Liir seemed to be incapable of acting civil towards his mother during the waking hours. How could he be so in need of her when he was out cold, but as soon as the sun rose, he wanted nothing to do with her? I didn't understand it.

"I don't have a good feeling about this, Fiyero." Elphaba whispered as we approached Kiamo Ko under the cloak of night.

"Did you have a good feeling about that nighttime walk?" Liir sneered lightly.

"Liir!" I snapped. There was only so much more I could take of this.

Kiamo Ko wasn't one of my favorite castles. It was the only one completely fashioned out of stones, so it gave off this dark and foreboding feeling just when it came into sight on the horizon. Being right up under it, though, was absolutely terrifying. The castle where I grew up was lovely. It was made from the finest Vinkun materials, had the finest decor that money could buy, and it was where all my childhood memories had been made. Kiamo Ko, though there was one good memory attached to the building, had been abandoned for years. Or so I thought.

The sun was just starting to rise when the three of us made it in through the service quarters. Red flags should have went up when I noticed the lack of spider webs and other signs of age. I don't even remember what I brushed it off as, I just continued to lead Elphaba and Liir through the seemingly deserted quarters and into the kitchen. Elphaba's eyes sparkled with recognition every time we passed one thing or another. Her eyes darted over everything when we were in the kitchen. Liir watched her as she broke away and went over to shut the door that lead to the wine cellar. Looking back on it, I knew that is what sent the red flags her way. The cellar door had a latch and bolt. Someone would have had to physically open it for it to have been left ajar. In the moment, though, I barely thought about it.

"We can all stay in one room, if that would make you feel better?" I offered. Elphaba nodded, running a green finger over the counter. "Why don't you take Liir to the room you used, and I'll be there in a minute." They both gave me the same look, but I pretended to be interested in the room around me.

They both walked the same way when they were uneasy. It was this stiff, long stride, and head held high walk. They were determined to keep the world from knowing they were unhappy. It was funny how similar they actually were. Elphaba had been Liir's world, and I didn't know how to bring that back for him. She used to be the first person he'd see in the morning and the last person at night. She woke him up and tucked him in. He helped her with breakfast, and she helped him set up a routine. He was a little Elphaba, and now he was lost. I leaned against the wall and sighed. How many times would I need to remind him that she wasn't going anywhere?

I paused in my thoughts when I opened one of the cabinets. It was full of food. Dried fruit. Evaporated milk. Granola. Rice biscuits. Asides from my disgust, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I glanced back towards the cellar door, recalling it from earlier. The matches were still in the same drawer they had been at one point. I struck one against a candle and headed towards the wine cellar. It didn't creak when I opened it, which was another thing I should have noticed when Elphaba had shut it. This damned thing always creaked. Nothing in the cellar seemed any different. Just, you know, instead of being full of nothing, it had rows and rows of aged wine, brandy, and rum. There didn't even seem to be one particle of dust. My heart picked up, and I let out a bird whistle. Nothing answered back, so I tried another tune. It was just for precaution, though. I didn't feel like there was anything down here. But I needed to be sure.

Once again, the door made no sound when shut it. I made a point to check every room I passed on the way up to the room Elphaba had used as a bed room when she was here as the Wicked Witch. Every room, and I do mean every room, was sparkling clean. There wasn't anything wrong in any room. Furniture was cleaned, curtains were open, wood was polished, and there was a sweet and fruity smell to all of them. I whistled after checking every other room, but no one ever answered. The rooms in the upper levels were the same way. I ended up searching through most of the rooms I remembered people ever using. And of course, Liir and Elphaba weren't in the room she had slept in. They were in the library. Obviously.

"...then by the last name of the author." Elphaba was saying as she ran a finger down the row of books.

"We were in a town that had three libraries." Liir told her. He was sitting on the ground, looking over the spines on the bottom shelf. "On a Monday," he added.

"Many towns have more than one," I could hear the smile in her voice, so I stayed unannounced. "It's easy to keep books from being mixed up. There are five in the town I grew up in. And the village where daddy grew up has two specifically for the history of the Vinkus."

"Mama...have you ever killed someone?" Liir's head dropped just as Elphaba's dropped to gaze at him. She cautiously lowered herself to his level. "I met this girl who said you killed her mama."

"Do you think I killed her mama?"

Liir glanced at her and then down at his lap and back at her, "No." Elphaba shook her head, and Liir let her cup his face. "I don't-" I moved a certain way, and Liir caught the movement out of the corner of his eyes. Elphaba and I both saw how quickly retreated back into his mind. "Daddy!" He jumped up and raced to my side, leaving Elphaba awkwardly on the floor.

"Elphaba," I said as Liir wrapped his arms around me. "There's food in the cabinets and wine in the cellar."

Elphaba was up.

"We can't stay here, Fiyero."

Liir hung back when I went over to his mother, grasped her arms, holding her in place. "We can't be rash." I reminded her. She stole a quick look at her son. "Let's go into some rooms, find some clothes, stock up on some soaps and oils, and take some food. Who knows when we'll get these things next."

"You want us to-"

"...dress him any way I please."

Elphaba stopped what she was saying in acknowledgment of the voice. Liir stood frozen hallway between the door and me and Elphaba.

"Glinda-" Another voice reasoned but cut off before the sentence could finish.

Elphaba's eyes were locked on the door. I whipped around to followed her gaze, and sure enough, Glinda and Avaric stood deadly still. The freeze was only for a split second. Then Glinda was squealing and rushing over to envelop Elphaba in a tight hug, thanking Oz, Lurline, and Kumbrica that Elphaba was alive and looking well enough.

"Oh, Elphie!" She yiped like a puppy as she crashed into her best friend.

Liir stared at Glinda with a mix of horror and fascination. I told you he was his mother's son in every way. Glinda was dressed in a pink puff of a dress, a little pink clutch of a purse was tucked under her arm, her tiara was firmly fitted between her signature curls, and her heels must have given her a good three or four inches. Even still, she was significantly shorter than everyone expect Liir. The boy watched her as she turned from Elphaba and to me. Her hand clamped over her mouth as she let out a choked sob. It made my heart break. Considering the last time I saw her, in this form, I was being dragged off to my death by the men who I had lead only days before.

I hugged her when another sob shook her body, followed by another series of deep ones. She shook against me as I held her, trying to sooth the woman I had once thought would be the one who I would end up with for the rest of my life. Liir stood awkwardly, glancing around at everyone in the room. He kept a cautious eye on Avaric, who was still standing awkwardly at the entrance. Glinda finally pulled away, laughing softly as she wiped the tears from her face with a delicate finger.

"Glinda!" I exclaimed when her little purse smacked against the side of my head without warning.

"You are an absolutely horrendible person, Fiyero Tiggular!" She huffed, crossing back to Avaric and then pulling him deeper into the room where we were. "I thought you'd been left for the crows in the field!" She smacked me again.

"I'm sorry!" I tried. It only got me another smack.

"You brought me food." Liir spoke up, staring up at the blonde.

He successfully caught Glinda's attention, and I couldn't help but wonder if he did it intentionally to spare me another smack for that Oz damned little purse of hers.

"Yes." Glinda nodded. "You never ate anything."

Liir glanced over at his mother and me then back to Glinda, "I thought it was poisoned."

"I-I, uhm, I saved your papers." Glinda left the room quickly, leaving the rest of us in an awkward silence. Elphaba asked Avaric how he was after a little while, but Glinda reappeared, breathing heavily and carrying a bunch of papers rolled and tied together. She offered them to Liir, who took them gingerly. "I saw them when we went to check what happened, and when I saw what they were, I sent them away to my quarters." Liir stared at her. "Have you read them?"

Liir nodded, "I'm seven." He said it as if him being seven meant he knew everything. I wasn't like that until I turned nine. Between my genes and Elphaba's genes, though, he was bound to have a quicker pace of development, social and academic, I mean.

"Of course." Glinda smiled, tears coming to her eyes.

.

I laid Liir in the bed in the room Glinda had let us use. He had fallen asleep ages ago, and he was now lightly snoring. Elphaba pulled the covers up to his chin and started tucking him in like she had always done back in the Bad Lands. I backed out of the room and stood with Avaric and Glinda in the hallway as Elphaba finished up. It was such a normal thing that I almost laughed at the whole situation.

She and Liir had stayed away from each other most of the day. Elphaba and Glinda were together mostly, and Liir was pretty much glued to my side as he always way. Staying at a distance from her, though, really allowed me to get a good look at her. She had changed so much, so much I really hadn't seen it until I removed myself from her side. The pictures in the papers must have beefed her up, because she looked at least ten pounds lighter in person than she did in the papers. Her cheekbones were more pronounced; her skin was a sickly green; her eyes didn't hold the exact spark I remembered; and she just held this constantly...I don't even know how to explain it. There was just something different in the way she held herself. It was so unlike the Elphaba I had fallen in love with. And I don't mean to say I didn't love this new Elphaba, because she was my Elphaba. She was still the girl who I rescued a Lion Cub for. She would always be. But there was something different. Her spirit. Something had taken her spirit.

Elphaba didn't have her locket on her, I noticed, when she came out of the room, closing the door lightly behind her. Glinda smiled sweetly at her best friend and took her hand, leading us down the hall. I walked in an uncomfortable silence next to Avaric. Of course, Glinda was babbling about something, but I don't think Avaric and I were able to catch onto or keep up with her train of thought. Really, all I wanted to do was kick his ass. I was still uncertain why he was here and why he hadn't turned us in yet. That's what he did last time, right?

"I remember when we were in Shiz," Glinda smiled as she fiddled around with the stove after we reached the kitchen. Avaric popped up onto the counter, I leaned against the wall, and Elphaba stood awkwardly in the middle of the three of us. "And I convinced Elphaba to let me tease her hair-"

"Threatening is not the same as convincing." Elphaba interrupted.

"Oh, hosh posh." Glinda filled a kettle with water.

"What did you threaten the great Elphaba with?" Avaric snickered. Elphaba's eyes flew to the ground, and her cheeks flushed. I couldn't help my grin at the sight she made. Glinda, on the other hand, adopted a slight scowl.

"I told her that I would lock her in a room with Fiyero." Glinda answered, standing straight and tossing her curls roughly over her shoulder. Avaric sent me a sympathetic look. Time does not heal open wounds, it just stocks up on the salt. "I teased her hair and made her all swank, and then I dragged her down to the Canal. We ran into Avaric, and he told her she looked like a head of broccoli."

For a moment I thought that she was telling this story to insult Elphaba; but then I caught the smirk that graced Elphaba's face, and it was Avaric who was scowling now. "And I told him that my head my look like broccoli but his looked like cauliflower."

Glinda bursted out in a fit of giggles, and it took me a moment to catch on before I joined in. Elphaba and Avaric kept their faces composed, but each of them had something tugging at the corners of the mouth.

A silence settled over us again as Glinda went on with whatever she was brewing on the stove. Elphaba had resorted to leaning against the wall next to me, but she still twiddled her fingers together in a nervous bit. I didn't know what to say? What did I say to my wife who had been missing for the past two months. What did I say to my former best friend who tried turning me in to the authorities when I went to him for help? And what did I say to the woman who I left in pursuit of her fugitive best friend? Her best friend who I was now married to with a child who was older than our marriage. I knew Glinda wasn't bitter with Liir, but she couldn't look at him without seeing me and Elphaba. And I knew that reminded her that I was never hers. She was by no means stupid. Even Elphaba saw the look in Glinda's eyes when Liir told her he was seven. It didn't take a genius to calculate his date of conception.

"Elphaba?" Avaric broke the spell of silence. Elphaba tore her gaze away from the many layers of Glinda's skirt. "You're the first person to break out of Southstairs."

Elphaba nodded.

"All the nobles in the Gillikin got the memo." Avaric explained. "Everyone's baffled."

Glinda stopped her work at the stove and turned to stare at Avaric. I had a feeling they had discussed this, and it was something Glinda had decided was not to be brought up in front of my wife. Obviously but Avaric was never one to follow directions.

"You want to know how I did it?" Elphaba asked.

Avaric nodded, and Glinda spoke up, "Elphie, excuse him. He misplaced his manners. You don't have to tell us anything."

"No, it's fine." Elphaba shook her head and threw me a quick glance. "I was meaning to tell Fiyero, so I might as well tell everyone now. I won't have to retell it later then." Her voice cracked a little. Everyone followed her over to the table, no one even breathing heavier than usual. "When they called the trackers off of me," Elphaba paused for a moment, probably trying to figure out how she was going to communicate. She traced some pattern on the table slowly. "They blindfolded me, but I knew where they were taking me. Where else would they take me? They wouldn't go to the castle and risk the chance of Glinda being able to perform some sort of rescue. So they took me to Southstairs and left me in some cell in the dungeons, and kept me down there until the infection was so bad I couldn't even move to relieve myself in the chamber pot a pace or two away." Elphaba scoffed.

"What was the infection from?" Avaric asked.

Glinda buried her face in her hands. "The trackers weren't called off right away," Elphaba told him evenly. "I killed one of them, but the other two thought green meant go." I was never saying the again. "So they finally brought me up to the main room. And everyday they would take me out twice. We walked all these halls to get to the infirmary, and they would give me a shot for my wounds. They wouldn't wrap them up, because if I healed properly, they would face the possibility of me being healthy enough to fight back. So after the shot, they would take me back, and a couple hours later..." Her voice trailed off. Both of her hands were on the table, and she was just staring at them. "The highest tower...you can't hear the screams that come from it when the doors and windows are shut, but when you're in there...silence becomes the sound that deafens you.

For the first few days, they just beat me like all the other prisoners. All the guards were ignorant, because to most of them the Wicked Witch of the West is nothing more than a legend. They probably weren't even attending Shiz when we left Oz. But then the Morribles came by." Elphaba nodded. "By then I had been able to heal my open wounds enough to keep them from opening up during the night." Glinda blanched. "And I had gotten the hang of how to act like the beatings hurt more than they actually did. But the Morribles aren't stupid. They knew." She nodded again. "So they took me to this bare room, and the only thing there was a chair against the far wall and some sort of image projector in the middle. In was the strangest thing I'd ever seen, but it wasn't guards with blunt objects, so I wasn't really complaining."

"It's something Madame Morrible thought up." Glinda told her weakly.

"So they tied me to the chair, started the projector, and left me there for hours. Just to watch the same video over and over again. I tried getting out of the ties, but Madame Morrible hasn't lost her touch." She pushed her sleeves up a little to reveal the burn marks encircling her wrists. "So I sat there day after miserable day and watched that Oz damned video."

"What was it of?" I wished I hadn't said it, but I can't help what comes out of my mouth most of the time.

"You." Elphaba said. Her hand started to twitch in my direction, but she denied it the chance to grab mine. So I grabbed hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. Elphaba's voice had lost its smoothness by now. It was so foreign to hear, but she was choking back tears. "Showing what happened before I was able to turn you. I never realized how long it actually was. It had to have been an hour at the least. And you just took it." She said in disbelief, her voice clearing up. "You took it. They broke your bones and skin, and you just told them you'd take my secret to your grave." Elphaba stared at our entwined fingers, blinking rapidly.

"I'd do it again."

She looked up at me and went on, "And then on the night before they were going to move me to another complex in Quadling Country, I woke up with this terrible pain. I didn't know what was happening until it had happened. I knew then that I needed to go. So I started crying and wailing until one of the guards came over and called for help before he fainted. I lifted his keys off of him and tied them with the string of my pants to my abdomen. The one who came to replace the fainted guard took me out of the cell after he made me clean it up." Glinda clamped her hand to her mouth after she made a small sound. I glanced over to see the tear tracks cracking her makeup. Avaric was rubbing her back consolingly but looked in need of some consoling himself. It doesn't matter how tough you are, hearing that a mother had to clean up her own miscarriage is enough to make anyone vomit. "So when he was turned around to lock the cell, I slammed his face into the bars hard enough to knock him out, but not hard enough to kill him. The hardest part was rolling them both in the cell. I stole the cloak that was hanging on the wall and threw my prisoner robes in the fire. I spent the rest of the night in the dirty laundry room. We passed it all the time when they were taking me to the high tower.

They all figured I had escaped the actual grounds by then, so I had the advantage. I put on one of the dirty uniforms that was used by some officer. I padded myself up to give me some extra inches, and then I walked right out the front door during the guard changing." She smirked. "I stayed in plain sight for a bit, and then I heard people say that the Queen was staying in the Embassy for a while, wanting to be around and readily available if the Palace caught wind of the bandits Ero and Liir." She rubbed her thumb over my finger. "So I went there, and she took one look at me, and I thought she was going to shoot me. But she hugged me." I grinned. "She hugged me." Elphaba licked her lips and stared down at the table. "Escaping Southstairs was easier than surviving in it." She ended.

"The Queen loved you?" Glinda asked after a long silence with nothing but the whistling kettle as background noise.

"Glinda..." Avaric warned.

"She never even expressed interest in meeting me."

"I'm sure she just sympathized with the," Elphaba choked out the word, "miscarriage."

"I was Fiyero's fiancé, you're a wanted criminal."

"Glinda!" Avaric snapped.

"I think we should probably get to bed if we want to be up early." I said before anyone said something they regretted.

Elphaba nodded and stood up with me. I told everyone we'd see them in the morning and lead Elphaba out of the kitchen and through the halls. Our fingers laced together the whole time.

"I never imagined it would be so awkward." Elphaba laughed dryly.

"What?" I sent Elphaba a glance. "Telling your story?"

"Being in the same room as Glinda as a couple. She looks so hurt by it." Elphaba shook her head. "I mean, she's known for years about us. I think it's really hitting her that you're not hers anymore."

"I was never hers." I reminded her.

Elphaba gave me a lopsided grin as I flopped onto the plush bed with pink sheets, "I really have missed you, Yero."

I smiled up at the ceiling, opening my mouth to say something, but was cut off by a very sudden but pleasing pressure on my body. Elphaba straddled my hips, pressing her body tight against mine as her mouth worked the physical magic she was so perfect at. Her thin hands held my wrists in place over my head, tightening their grip when I tried moving them to hold her. The kisses progressed from chaste to carnal quickly. I managed to switch our positions, but she ended up switching us back. She had a strong desire for power, and most of the time that's what foreplay consisted of. We were quite the couple. I would have fought her for control, but come on now. When was the last time this happened? When was the last time air seemed limited because the kisses were so fervent?

Elphaba laughed as she rolled off of me sometime later. "I've wanted to do that since I saw you in that bathroom."

No arguments here. "Do you remember that one thing you do with your mouth?"

She laughed again, "You're going to have to be more specific, Fiyero."

I turned onto my side, propped myself up with my arm, and winked at her, "You know, _that _one thing."

"Oh," She grinned wickedly. "_That _thing."

"I don't think you did it right."

"Excuse me?" Elphaba frowned at me before scoffing like I insulted her. "I thought you wanted to get to bed."

"I'm just saying, I don't even think I'm going to remember it in the morning. Which is odd since you're usually so memorable. But you're right. We should be getting to bed."

"Well, we've never done anything half-ass." Elphaba ran her finger down my arm after I dropped onto my back, closing my eyes. "We'll never forgive ourselves if we don't achieve perfection."

"This is true."

"Unless you're losing your stamina with old age, that is."

I smirked at her.

Needless to say, neither of us slept much that night.

**Again, the end serves as a relief, because next chapter Fiyero is going to have to deal with the tension between Elphaba and Liir, and also this new tension between him, Elphaba, and Glinda.**

**Also, I totally just outlined Liir's next outburst: It's going to be pretty epic;)**

**AND! I found The Deep End on Netflix...Norbert Leo Butz is awesome! He plays similar characters in most of his work! I love it:)**


	19. The Vinkus

**My spell check doesn't know how to handle all these Ozian words. Seriously, the page lights up red when I press spell check. **

**I had to rewrite this chapter, because I really didn't like the way the first draft was. Hopefully you like this one!**

**Happy New Year!**

I don't know if the strange smell or the strange sound that woke me up first. I buried my face into the pillow, to block the smell, when the sound died down. It helped for a bit, but the sound returned and the smell just didn't go away. My body protested as I lifted off of my stomach and tried to get a glimpse of my surroundings. Oh, yeah, Kiamo Ko. Elphaba. Elphaba? She wasn't in the bed anymore, and a wave of panic shot through me. Where was she? Ignoring the aching, I pushed myself up and looked around wildly, calling out for her. The bed where she had fallen asleep on was cold. How had I not heard her get out of the bed? I'd been on red alert for noises for the past two months, but now my heightened senses failed me? Finding Elphaba, though, I also found the source of the smell and the sounds. Strange had been an understatment descriptor.

Elphaba's bare back was to me as she huddled over something. I scrambled from the bed, tugging on whatever pants were closest to me. Her malnourished frame was shaking with foreign sobs. It was the first time I'd ever seen her cry. I mean, I had absolutely never seen Elphaba cry. Not when she was deprived of days of sleep because of a colicky Liir. Not when Baumer bucked her off the first time she ever rode him, and she landed in a thicket of thorns. Sometimes I even forgot that she knew how to cry, but there was the proof. Once I stumbled to her, the smell became more predominant. It was vomit. It was a sight to see. Her arms were wound tight around her knees, so tight that her nails were digging into arms enough to make deep tracks. Her dark hair was spilling over her right shoulder, the ends of her strands falling into the pile of vomit. Her eyes were glossed over and staring out into some unknown abyss even as she sobbed, letting out a sob every now and then. It was the scariest thing I had ever witnessed.

"Elphaba," I said softly, laying my hand on her back. She cried out and jumped away from me. "Elphaba."

She shook her head, "Don't, please don't." She begged. I went to reach for her again but stopped when she started retching up more vile.

I held her hair back for her as more contents came up and spilled into the growing pile. It seemed like she had dropped so much weight just in the short time from when we had been in the bed together to now. Of course, she wasn't tiny in the petite sense like Glinda was; but she was tiny in the sense that there seemed to be hardly anything to her but skin and bones. So I was gentle as I laid my hand on her back, rubbing soothing circles into it as she started uncharacteristically sobbing. She was muttering something to herself, or to me, while she wiped her mouth on her arm. I felt so helpless. How do you help the strongest woman you know? But I needed to do something. I couldn't just let her sit here in a pile of her own vomit and tears. I gently tugged her away from the pile as I caught a coherent phrase from her mouth: "And did she ever come out?"

"Come on, Fae." I whispered, grabbing her arms and trying to stand her up.

"Not yet." I didn't know if she was answering me or herself.

"Elphaba, you need to get up." I said firmly.

Her eyes went wide when they fell upon me, and she started shaking her head desperately. She had to be dreaming, having a night terror. She didn't recognize me. I don't even think she recognized where we were at. She was completely out of it. Elphaba thrashed about in my grip, jerked her arms violently, and started making some attempt to get me to release her by bobbing up and down. I called out her her again, shaking her this time and then tightening my grip. There was a moment where I thought she was going to knee me in the groin or start attacking me with her teeth or something. But she went slack and just stared at me. Comprehension still wasn't there. She was dazed, and the tears were silently trailing down her face. She was quiet, though, and acquiescent. Holding her still with one hand, I grabbed the sheet from the bed with the other and draped it over her shoulders.

"I'm sorry." She choked out.

I shook my head, wrapping the sheet fully around her trembling figure.

"Let me take care of you, okay?" She didn't agree or disagree. So I sat her down in a chair near the window and placed her hand on the hem of the sheet, so it would stay put.

"How many flogs does it take to get to the center of a royal traitor. Let's find out." My blood chilled at Elphaba's cold and detached words.

"What did you just say?" I turned from my path to the bathroom. "Elphaba, what did you just say?"

She didn't look at me as she said, "One."

"Elphaba-"

"Two."

I should have gagged when I accidentally stepped in the pile of vomit, but I was too entranced -no, flabbergasted by the words coming out of her mouth to even care about anything else in the room. She was relieving whatever hell they put her in when she was in Southstairs. She had to be.

"Leave him less than an inch away. She'll be back for him, and I want her to watch him draw his last breath." A chill shot through my body at the memory.

"Elphaba-"

"Crave him up like a Lurlinemas roast."

"Elphaba, shut up!" I barked, and she seemed to snap out of the sadistic reverie she had been in.

She stayed there in the chair, staring at the pile of vomit while I started the bath in the adjoining washroom. I moved to the pile next, quickly cleaning it up before I added my own stomach contents to the pile, or before she started talking again. The mess, though...I was never good at picking that stuff up for Liir. Elphaba always did it. Even when she was ill and her own matter threatened to join, she always told me to stay put while she tended to it. Now it was my turn, though, to take care of her. I didn't know what was going on, but it didn't matter. Not now, at least. We could figure out what happened after she was bathed, rested, and fed.

Elphaba moved in a trance-like state when I got her to her feet again and led her into the bathroom. The sheet dropped into a heap at the bathroom door, and I had to manuever her towards the sink and then the tub. It worried me how things had changed so drastically in a matter of hours. It seemed like we had just been romping around under the sheets, and now she was a shell of what she had been for the past few days. She was this fragile creature now. She didn't even remind me an ounce of Elphaba. It was frightening.

"Do you know who you are?" I asked as I wet her hair without using a bath cup. The look she gave me told me she wasn't _that _out of it.

"I'm the Wonderful Wizard of Oz." She said sourly with an eye roll.

I smirked.

"You are wonderful."

She blinked at me, "I'm the Wicked Witch of the West."

"You're a Tiggular of the Vinkun Arjikis."

"I'm a murderer."

I stayed quiet, thinking of a retort, as I ran the sponge over her back.

"I'm sorry." She muttered.

"For what?" I really didn't want to hear the answer.

"For killing our baby." She frowned down at her flat abdomen.

"Fae," I dropped the sponge in the water to run my fingers over her cheek. She was so out of it, and I knew that was the only reason we were having this conversation. So I felt no qualms in pushing this talk. "You didn't kill our baby." She opened her mouth to protest, "You didn't know, and I don't blame you. I wouldn't have blamed you even if you had known."

"I shouldn't have been going to see Glinda."

"I would have done the same thing if it'd been Avaric or my mother."

"You would have wanted a girl."

"We would have wanted a healthy baby."

"We can try again." She suggested earnestly, putting her hand over mine as I massaged some soap into her hair.

"You want to have another baby?" I didn't get my hopes up. "Or are you just saying that because you think that's what I want to hear?" I added softly.

Elphaba pondered for a moment while I poured water onto her head from my cupped hands. She traced a pattern into her knee as I went about cleaning her up. I figured her silence was the answer. I didn't mind. Elphaba was a very closed individual, and her pregnancy with Liir had been a strain on her. She had to deal with people invading her personal space and personal life, because they were so concerned with her well-being and wanted to help in every possible way. And for someone so guarded in her emotions and actions, it was torturous for her to have to put up with all the attention. Not that she would get that same attention were she to get pregnant now, but she would always associate the feeling. I didn't mind, but I can't say I wasn't the least bit disappointed. I had wanted another baby ever since Liir was a few months old. Elphaba, though, she never mentioned wanting another baby. Liir was her pride and joy, and she wouldn't have been able to love any other baby as much as she did him.

But she spoke up, "I want another baby." It was so soft that I almost didn't hear her. Her mouth had moved, though, and there was a pleasant expression pulled at her lips. It was an almost smile. She nodded.

"Once we're safe." I grinned and kissed her temple. "We'll have another baby once we're safe."

She turned her head and kissed me before taking the sponge and finishing the wash herself. Liir was standing in the shadows when I finally got Elphaba cleaned up and put into something to wear. I don't think she saw him standing in the corner, because she made no sign of recognition. She hadn't been looking anywhere but the ground anyway. I lead her back to the bed, and the second her head hit the pillow, she was out like a light. I stayed by her immediate side for a moment, just in case she woke up out of whatever state she had been in. But her chest rose and fell steadily, and there was no inclination that she was going to be anything but sleeping in the next few hours. So I settled into an armchair near her. I wasn't that tired anymore, and I wanted to be awake in case something happened again. I couldn't afford to sleep through another episode. I needed to be alert. I needed to be there for my wife. It was my job as her husband. It was my obligation as the love of her life. And it was my promise to her that I would never let anything happen to her. I didn't break my promises.

Liir took a tentative step forward from the shadows as Elphaba let out a sound that was something like a light snore. I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye, but I kept my gaze fixed on his mother.

"What's wrong with her?" He asked quietly.

"She's sick." I muttered, unsure.

"Is she going to be okay?"

"She will." I hope so.

"Are you going to go back to bed?"

"I don't think so, bug. Just in case mama needs help."

He nodded and looked around the room. As if someone else would be in here this early. "I should sleep in the bed with her." He said. I turned my attention to him. He shrugged, "Just in case she gets frightened and needs someone to hold on to."

I stared at him as he climbed into the bed with Elphaba and nestled himself securely into her side. She stirred some a little after he had gotten comfortable; but once she saw who it was and what he was doing, she was back asleep, with her arms around him, in a matter of moments. I sighed and rubbed my hands over my face. The two of them were like living with ill-tempered house pets.

.

Liir was shoveling toast into his mouth when I started to walk into the dining room later in the morning at a more acceptable hour for wakefulness. Elphaba sat across from him, reading something as a plate of toast sat in front of her. She said something that caused Liir to breakout into a fit of giggles. She threw back her own laugh when he responded. I was afraid of breaking the spell between them by walking in, but I needed to know if Elphaba was feeling better. I knew my chances of having a full length conversation about what happened this morning were slim, but I would take any words I could. Certainly she would have something to say about what happened. Liir erupted into another fit of giggles, Elphaba joining in, before I finally made my appearance known to the both of them. He looked mischievously at his mother as I sat down.

"What's the plan for today, Fiyero?" Elphaba looked back down at her paper. "Avaric and Glinda left early this morning, but they left a note saying they wouldn't be too long. Glinda needed to drop her children off at etiquette classes or something, and Avaric has business to tend to."

"We could wile away the hours conferrin' with the flowers." Liir suggested.

I dropped the toast I had been about to spread jam on, "What did you say?"

"Consultin' with the rain." Elphaba smirked as she egged him on.

"Did you tell him?" I turned to her. Of course she told him. Who else? Dorothy Gale?

"And my head I'd be a scratchin'-"

"This is not funny." I snapped.

"While your thoughts were busy hatchin'-"

"If I only had a brain."

I scowled at Elphaba, "You promised."

She laughed out loud, a laugh that made Liir smile a real smile. "I did no such thing!" I shook my head and rolled my eyes. "But really, the two of them will be back soon. We need to do something fast."

"You want to leave?" I asked incredulously. She raised her eyebrows. "Elphaba, we can't just up and leave without word or warning."

"It was hardly be a surprise if we did."

"Like hell!" I bit but pulled back, remembering Liir was in the room and the events from the morning. "If anything, we need to stay a week to refuel or strength and formulate a plan."

"You know as well as I do that winter will hit Kiamo Ko hard within a week, and we'll be stuck here for Oz knows how long."

"Would that be such a bad thing?" I retorted.

"Everything's pink." Liir muttered.

I opened my mouth to keep at it with Elphaba, but she gave me a curt look to shut me up. "Bug, why don't you go up to the library you were in yesterday? There are some really cool books in there about the other castles and past members of our family."

"You want me to leave you and mama can argue?"

Elphaba frowned at me, "We just need to talk, Liir."

Liir reluctantly stood up. He kept a sharp eye on me the entire walk to the door. He even paused in the middle of the threshold to give me this look I would have given someone wanting to have a one on one conversation with Elphaba without me. I blinked. Since when was he back to Elphaba's side? I mean, I wasn't complaining about his sudden desire to be with his mother at all times. But it was a little unnerving. She was sick, though, and I had a feeling he was acting the way he was because of whatever ailment she had. It could be a good thing. Him being around her again like he had been could remind him of what things were like before she left. It could make him want to go back to the way it was and actively try to mend their broken relationship. We'd see, I guess, like always.

"We need to stay here." I said once Liir's footsteps had died down.

"I am _not _staying in this castle with Glinda. She's going to murder me in my sleep."

"Don't be dramatic!" I barked. "You won't make a winter journey in the Vinkus, we-"

"I'm fine!"

"Could have fooled me!" I laughed harshly. She drew to her full height, and her eyes grew cold, but I wasn't backing down. "You're sick, Elphaba, and you know you're sick. Your just trying to be strong, because you think it's what Liir needs right now."

"I'm strong, because I'm fine. And Liir needs a place to call home, not this prison!" At least we agreed about Liir.

"Wow, cool it down some or you'll set the castle ablaze." Avaric announced his and Glinda's unwanted presence.

"Well, looks like you're getting what you want, Elphaba. No doubt this one's called the authorities on us." I threw my hands in the air, turning to go fetch Liir.

"Now wait just a clock tick!" Glinda grabbed my sleeve. "Why would Avaric call for the authorities? He's here to help!"

"Like hell! He's turned me in once, he'll do it again!"

"Are you mad?" Avaric scoffed. "I've never called for the authorities a day in my life!"

"Oh, forgive me," I apologized mockingly. "He had one of his servants call for the authorities when we were in the Gillikin. He's playing you, Glinda."

"I called for Glinda, you idiot!" Avaric cried. I paused, and Elphaba rolled her eyes. I looked over at the blonde who was nodding her head in agreement. Oh. I shuffled my feet awkwardly. Well, how was I supposed to know? Avaric cleared his throat, "And you should be more happy to see me, _old pal_."

"Why's that?" Elphaba asked.

He shot her a truly apologetic look. Glinda answered for him, though, "You can't leave Oz even if you wanted to." Elphaba bristled. "The Morribles have the exits heavily guarded, even in the Vinkus. No one gets in or out without proper documentation. They know you're here and are trying to close you in."

"So we're supposed to stay?" Elphaba cried. "Why? So they can walk right up to the door?"

"If you go outside, Horrible Morrible is just going to change the weather to get you where she wants you." Glinda reasoned, but Elphaba wasn't having it. "Elphie, your best bet is staying where I can protect you."

"I don't need someone to protect me." She snapped, I snorted, and she glared.

"Elphaba," Avaric lowered his voice. "Your son is probably malnourished from being a vagabond for two months, do you really think he can handle living Oz knows how long on the lam?" Elphaba's front faltered. I nodded at Avaric in encouragement from behind my wife. She'd hang me on a pole herself for not siding with her when someone else was challenging her. "You may not need protecting, but Liir does."

Elphaba gave us all a levelling look before storming out of the room. I rubbed my face roughly with my hands. She was impossible! Did she want us to meet our downfall? Because she sure as hell wasn't making any lick of sense. I didn't go after her, because I knew she was going straight to Liir. So I slumped into a chair and stared over at the papers the two of them had been looking at when I first came in. We could always go back to Dr. Dillamond. If Animal camps were protected under proclamations that Glinda had made, surely we'd be safe there while we figured out what to do next. Or go back north into the Gillikin and look for those rebels who would be willing to house us. Didn't that old couple say people were waiting for our return? For the Protegé's time? Or would we really be safe with Glinda? She did have a degree in Sorcery. And while she wasn't half the witch Elphaba is, she wasn't inept. She had that bubble and that bedazzled septor. There had to be some road to safety.

Glinda sat down next to me and rested a reassuring hand on my arm as Avaric disappeared into the kitchen. Could we go to live with my mother? The Gale Force had no power over the towns and buildings in the Vinkus. And the castle in the Thousand Year Grasslands had more than enough space for my family to steer clear of the Force should the Morribles send a regiment out to "seek shelter" temporarily in the Grasslands. There were doors that lead to hidden rooms, built during First Vinkun Civil War before Ugabu broke apart and formed its own nation. And would my mother really turn us away? She loved me, adored Liir, and clearly she had no feelings of hostility towards Elphaba. The only trouble we would face would be getting through the Kells and then open plains of the Grasslands. We'd evaded and escaped the law for two months, though. We would be able to make a half a month's journey to the Grasslands. If we used the cover of night, right? I'd given up the comfort of our life in the Bad Lands, and I'd be damned if I couldn't return my family to some kind of splinter of that comfort. Finding Elphaba was only half of the task.

Avaric returned and set a cup of tea and glass of whiskey in front of me.

"It's a little too early to start drinking, don't you think?" Glinda chastised half-heartedly.

"Not when you're married to Elphaba." Avaric answered for me. I shot him a cool look in defense of my wife, but I raised the glass of whiskey in cheers.

"Madame Morrible knows Elphaba, Fiyero." Glinda said after a few moments of silence. Avaric looked up from reading over the papers on the table, but I stared into the cup of tea. "And Master Morrible has much more influence than the Wizard ever did. He's got eyes and ears everywhere. If you make it out of Oz, it won't be alive or together." I nodded. "Your best bet is staying somewhere in the Vinkus. No one hates the Ozian government more than the Vinkuns." Avaric snickered lightly. "Well, it's true. And they will continue to do so until they see a body belonging to their crowned prince."

"What do you expect us to do?" I took a sip of the tea and wrinkled my nose. I much prefered the whiskey. "It's not like we can hide in plain sight. Elphaba's green, if you haven't noticed."

Glinda rolled her eyes and sighed melodramatically. "I hadn't even thought of that. Elpaba being green? It's like I haven't known her for over ten years." Avaric snickered again.

"Okay, so you have a plan then?"

"As a matter of fact I do." And her nose went up haughtily.

**Please review:)**


	20. The Tower

**Thank you so much for your support! Means the world to me! Seriously :)**

**I am really, really sorry. You'll see what I mean when you reach the end...**

Glinda and Avaric left us for three days and two nights. Avaric was a man of extreme importance in the Gillikin, so him just up and leaving to spend time in the Vinkus would be suspicious. The Gillikin had been exceedingly loyal to the Wizard when he was around. Gillikinese were known for their wealth before him, and the Wizard kept and fed their wealth. I assumed it was no different with the Morribles in power. So for someone of such high calliber as Avaric to me consorting with the rebellious West, people would start asking questions that not even a charming smile could calm. Glinda, of course, was important throughout all of Oz. She had appearances to make, but most importantly, she had children. While it helped put Elphaba to ease knowing that Glinda wasn't going to be around all the time, it did make her nervous. She kept talking about how someone could just walk in the door when we were least expecting it. Although she was right, I always tried to reason that Kiamo Ko is the last place anyone would want to venture to. It was in a mountain range that was hell to get through, and if you weren't looking for it, you would probably assume it a ruin. It was a weak argument, but it always got her to shut up. Probably from the ridiculousness of it, though.

Her night terrors had become customary. I wouldn't really say they were getting better or worse, they were just happening. Hardly anything about the first one changed from the third one. Although, the place where she ended up was different. I stayed up all night on the third night, just to see how it'd start. She would be sound asleep for maybe an hour or two, and then she would gasp. How had I not heard it the first night. Then she would sit up, her chest rising and falling at an alarming rate, and scramble out of the bed, looking around like a criminal caught in the act. Once she got out of the bed, she would start mumbling something, and I figured it was the beginning to whatever she had ended with before transitioning into the more sadistic ramblings. On the third night, when she had gotten up, the sheet tangled around her legs, and before she could even get more than two paces, she tripped and stumbled. The crying happened first. It had to happen as she was going down, because by the time I had went to see if she was alright, she was already groping the ground, sobbing silently. Every time she closed her eyes, something would go off in her. She would either cry harder or retch as her body rejected everything inside of it. And then I would touch her, call out to her, and she wouldn't seem to recognize me until her mind would start recalling how many flogs it took to get to the center of me.

Liir's mood fluctuated horribly. As terrible as it sounded, I locked him out of the room, so he wouldn't be able to see Elphaba in whatever state she was in. He was extremely sour about it, but he took to sleeping in front of our door the entire night. That night after the first incident, when I first decided to lock the door, I heard him pounding as I ran Elphaba's bath water. She was staring at the door when I went to bring her in the bathroom, but she would blink and silence would come. For a second I feared she had done something to him, thinking that it was someone else, but Liir ended up kicking the door a few more times before slinking to the floor. That would be the night. During the day, he seemed to fight over his emotions. One moment her would be perfectly fine and cheery with his mother, but the next he would hide himself behind piles of books. He avoided me, only stopping to send a long and cold glare at me when he deemed it appropriate. He would get over it.

"We could take the mountains into Ugabu," Elphaba pointed out on a map as we poured over it, looking for some sign of what we could possibly do. "The Kells lose their steepness after you get so far north. Essentially, we'd be making our way through rocky hills."

"There's bigger threats in the North, though." I said. "They'll be tight on the Gillikin border. The three of us travelling together will stick out. They'll have trackers on us instantly. We can stay west and make it to the Thousand Year Grasslands under the cover of night. We can stick close to the Vinkus River. The castle is a night's walk once we hit the end of the river."

"But we'd be in the wide open. What if there were Emerald City guards scouting around? We'd be easy targets."

I scratched my head. She was right.

"What about charming some more brooms?" I asked. "We have loads of them here."

"You can't fly on a broom," She reasoned. "You can't even get it to hum." Right again.

"Turn me into a scarecrow again." She gave me a look that would sooner kill me than turn me to straw. "We can't leave Oz, Elphaba. You heard Avaric and Glinda. Maybe someday, but we've got to stick it out now."

Elphaba groaned. "What is this plan of Glinda's?"

"I don't know." She didn't say.

She had barely begun telling me before she was whisked away again, mentioning something about forgetting what she meant to grab. Then Avaric told me that they would need to make themselves sparse for the sake of keeping attention away from Kiamo Ko. I asked him if he'd be able to get a letter to my mother, but he couldn't agree to that. She was probably being monitored closely if she was still in the City, and the Morribles suspecting me as me and Elphaba as Elphaba, would have guards watching her every move. Any contact with me would put her in danger right after my own wife and son. So we were confined to the company of those in the castle. The first day wasn't too bad. But I was dying for someone to talk to. Not that Elphaba didn't provide interesting conversation, but I wasn't able to talk to her about her nights. And every time she opened her mouth, that's what was on my mind. I was afraid she would have a midday terror, and Liir would be there to witness it. I just needed some distractions. We all did.

I looked over at Elphaba after she had been silent for a little bit. She was sitting down in a chair, staring blankly at the map. I hesitated but ultimately took the seat next to her and her hand in mine. She gazed at our latched hands, watching as my fingers laced through hers like they were made to do that. Well, I mean, I was whole heartedly convinced they were. Lurline, the Unnamed God, or whoever had made us that way. I was for her. I was made to hold her hand, kiss her lips, and comfort her when she was suffering. It made sense to me.

"Some times I wish things would just go back to the way they were before my audience with the Wizard. Things were so much easier."

"No they weren't." I kissed her hand.

She gave me a sad smile, "I don't recall being a fugitive then."

"I was dating _Galinda _but dreaming of you."

She laughed softly, "And you were dating Galinda while I was dreaming of you."

"I don't want to be in a reality where we don't exist."

"You're too good for me." Elphaba smirked.

"I'm not good enough."

"You're such a sap." She rolled her eyes but kissed me sweetly.

Liir, having some amazing timing, burst through the dining room doors then. Out of breath and calling for us to follow him, he was bouncing up and down with excitement. He flew like the speed of light, but after months on the run, neither Elphaba nor I had any real trouble catching up to him. The longer we stayed on the route from where he had come, the more I was starting to put together where we were going. Elphaba had to notice, too, because she faltered in her pace and almost tripped. We were headed to the tower where she had 'died'. I'd know the path any day. I had been so undeadly afraid that our plan hadn't worked, and she'd be lost to me forever. That we'd never have another night. That the residual feelings I had from our night together would be our only legacy. Of course, that was not the case. As seen by Liir's existence. Still, though, the tower wasn't exactly where I wanted to be going.

"Look!" He gasped, pointing towards where Elphaba had propped up a green glass orbical thing once upon a time. It was still there and hardly aged, but it was what was next to it that had Liir giddier than a schoolgirl.

"How did you get in here?" Elphaba asked Liir as she stumbled towards the area.

"Does it matter?" He responded, hurrying to her side after a moment's pause to catch his breath.

"Did you do this?" I stared down at it.

"No!" He promised. "I found this room and come up to read. And left it here last night, but look at it now!"

Elphaba's broom had fixed itself. Seriously. You could hardly tell it was ever broken. The wood was worn, but it looked like it had been made to look like that. Her initials were carved into the end of it still, and all of the bristles were neat and unbroken. Elphaba's hands shook as she held them over the once broken broomstick. She drew them back, as if she was afraid that touching it would break it all over. So Liir squatted beside her, picked it up, and held it out to her. It's not that I didn't believe in magic. I mean, my whole flesh and blood body depended on it, but seeing the work it can do is always awe-inspiring. That broom was split in two! Now, though, you wouldn't be able to tell that! It looked like it did the day she first magicked it back in the Bad Lands. I just...I had no words for magic. It saved me multiple times and was so deeply embedded in the DNA of Elphaba. It was something that I would never take for granted or look down on with contempt.

Elphaba shot up like a flame.

"What happened to my old broom?"

I opened my mouth like a fish a few times. Her old broom? How was I supposed to- oh, yeah. "Dorothy took it to the Wizard. It was burnt to a crisp."

"What does the Gale Force do with things like that?"

"Oh, I don't know, let me just check in my Force manual." I snapped sarcastically.

She gave me the same look she often gives Liir before putting him in time out.

"We can fly out of Oz!" She told us excitedly.

"I can't fly on a broom."

"You can if I'm controlling it!" She was not giving this up.

"What about Liir?"

"I know how to fly..." He said a little awkwardly, shuffling his feet. He knew how to fly?

"I'm sure it's just a matrilineal trait he inherited." Elphaba waved it off. When had she taught him how to fly? "Yero," Oh, now that's not fair. "If this broom healed after being split in half, surely a burnt broom can heal. _My _broom. We can fly under the cover of night and make it out of Oz without the Morribles ever knowing."

"And leave Oz in their hands?"

Why wasn't she more concerned about the state of Oz? This was her home, too. Or, it had been once upon a time. If the Morribles were out with, wouldn't we be safe to stay here? And Avaric said that we'd be safe in the Vinkus. They were loyal to their royal family, and as long as my dead body was unable to be shown, they would stay loyal. More importantly, I didn't want to leave. Say we did make it to Ugabu, where would we go from there? We had no plan if we made it out. If we stayed, though, waited or helped for a change of government, we could make our home here. Elphaba was older than the Protegé is depicted to be, and she's younger than what the Wicked Witch of the West was said to be. We could live under the protection of my mother. I could play regent for my sister. My sister. How could I leave her or my mother? They lost my father. Could I really just walk back out of their lives. As cruel as it sounds, just because Elphaba had no relationship with her family members didn't mean I lacked one, too. I needed my mother just as much as she needed me. She was the Elphaba to my Liir.

"Yero-" She tried the name again. Not working this time.

"Fae." I crossed my arms over my chest.

"There's going to be a coup soon. Avaric's heavily supportive of the Rebels against the regime, and I trust his faith in them. We have someone else to worry about, though. We have our family." I bristled at her comment. So she had memory of what was happening at night?

"I have family in the Vinus, too, Elphaba."

"I like grandma." Liir threw in his opinion.

I waved my hand at him eagerly. "Avaric said that we'd be safe in the Vinkus. Vinkuns hate the Ozian government. They'll keep us safe. They kept you safe in this castle for months!"

"They were afraid of me! They thought I'd kill them all in the blink of an eye. They thought I murdered you!"

Okay, yeah, that may have some truth to it. But it was irrelevant now. The government hadn't produced a body for them, so they had no faith in the Palace's truth. We had their loyalty now.

The clinking of Glinda's heels against the stones announced her appearance before her airy voice did. She was decked out in pink, a stark change from the gloom and grey in the room. In her arms was a book. It was wider than she actually was. The scene just seemed so surreal. Glinda holding her own books was never something I'd ever get use to.

"I had this door locked." She did a Glinda frown.

"I'm really good." Liir grinned. Elphaba gave him a quick frown before looking back at the book.

"Is that?"

"Yes it is!" Glinda chirped, setting the book down on a stand near the propped orb. "I brought some more fun things back, too! They're down with Avaric. He's getting himself a grand glass of wine. He does not take well to travelling in a bubble." She shook her head as her hands found her hips.

"You brought us a book?" I asked incredulously. "That's your master plan? A book? What? Are we going to read ourself right out of harm's way?"

Liir snickered, but neither of the girls were impressed.

"That book is the reason why I'm talking to you." Glinda retorted.

"It's the Grimmerie, Fiyero." Elphaba breathed as she ran a hand over the cover. Oh. Well... "Is there a spell in here that can help us? You know, without harming anyone?"

"I don't know." Glinda sighed heavily, dramatically. "I can't read a word of it. I tried a spell once upon a time, but it didn't do what it was supposed to." She added dejectedly. Liir's head snapped to her.

"Biq?"

"Boq." I corrected.

"Boq?" Elphaba tore her attention away from the book.

"Boq." Glinda's spine straightened.

"You've seen Boq?"

I glanced at Glinda and shrugged, "What's left of him." Elphaba cocked her head to the side.

"Ah!" Glinda dismissed the topic with a flick of her hand. "We don't have all day to discuss matters of what was. I marked the spell I think you can use. If you say it, I'm sure it'll work." Her voice cracked a little. Something that didn't go unnoticed by her best friend.

"Glinda, I turned Fiyero into a mess last time I tried to read from this. I gave it to you."

"Elphaba!" Glinda stared at her hard. "If you think you had a difficult time reading it, think how I felt! I'm not the-" And then she stopped herself, biting her lip.

"You're not the what?"

"I was never half the witch you were." That's not what she was going to say. "I rubbed elbows with Madame Morrible enough to know that while the spells in that book aren't reversible, there's always a counter spell. Like, there's a spell in there that is supposed to hide items, and the counter would be the spell that brings back what was lost. Then there's one that is basically a recipe to create dragons, and the counter is the one to let sleeping dragons lie. Obviously the book isn't black and white, but there's plenty of grey in it."

"If you can't read the book, how do you know spells in it?"

"I know when to hold my tongue." She pointed an accusing finger at Elphaba.

I left Liir with Elphaba to pour over the Grimmerie while I followed the blonde down the stairs and into the kitchen. Avaric, looking sickly pale, was hunched over a makeshift basin for vomit and also some crackers. I almost laughed at the sight. He looked like a pregnant Elphaba. Well, I suppose that's not very comical, but I couldn't help but find it the slightest bit funny. He looked up at us slowly when we walked in, holding on to the basin for dear life. I wondered how terrible coming and going by bubble actually was. If flying on a broom was anything like it, I'd prefer not to do it. Ever. I had no problem tramping.

"You think that book is going to help us?" I asked skeptically. "I mean, really?"

"It saved you from suffering a violent death." Avaric pointed out.

"I suffered before anything happened." I reminded him.

He shrugged.

"She's not rushing for an quick answer, so she's got some time to really read the words." Glinda said.

"What is the spell supposed to do?"

"It's supposed to erase the unnatural." Glinda pouted into a glass of wine she poured herself.

I paused, "It'll degreenify her?"

"She'll blend right in." Glinda answered quietly.

"She won't be green anymore?"

"Well, I mean," She fumbled for words. "There's that spell that's supposed to return what is lost, and I'm sure that'll put the green back in her. But degreenifying her is your safest road."

I couldn't even picture a pale-skinned Elphaba. I didn't want to. I loved her because of and in spite of her green. Her hue made her who she was, and I loved her for who she was. I opened my mouth to voice my concern, but Glinda perked up and waved her hand for me to shut up. I didn't hear what she was talking about until Avaric nearly chocked on his surprise. I didn't even have time to react before I was staring at a waking nightmare.

"Galinda, dear, you are the hardest woman in all of Oz to get ahold of!"

Madame Morrible.

**Hehehe...review for the cliffhanger?**


	21. Elsewhere

**The end of this isn't much better...**

I tore through the castle, pushing speed limits I hadn't flirted with in a few days.

Morrible hadn't recognized me. Why would she? I hardly looked like the boy she had last seen, or scarecrow, and she had not been present when I had the pleasure of meeting her husband. It didn't stop the pure fear that took over my body. A fear that she picked up on instantly. Luckily, Avaric and Galinda were much more agile in the come back department. Avaric told her I was a childhood servant of his. He said that I'd spent years looking for work before I found my way back to him. Glinda added that I didn't communicate well, that she had tried engaging me in conversation plently of times, but she was beginning to think I was dense. I had enough sense to play dense and not shoot Glinda the glare I was wanting to. I don't know if Horrible Morrible really ate it up, but she turned away from me and led Glinda from the kitchen. Avaric and I had sat in silence for several moments. Then Avaric got up slowly, poked his head in the rooms adjoined to the kitchen and then in the corridor.

"Go!" Avaric had hissed. "Get Elphaba and Liir to the river. I'll come get you when it's safe."

He didn't need to tell me twice. I took of running until I blew threw the tower door. Elphaba and Liir looked at me like I had lost my mind.

"Come on," I grabbed my satchel, quickly making sure everything was in it. "We need to go. Now!" I barked when Elphaba and Liir didn't move.

They were sitting on the ground over that book. Liir nudged her excitedly.

"Fiyero-"

"Morrible is here, Elphaba," I hissed, picking up Liir's satchel and stuffing some papers in it. "We need to go."

"No, Yero, look," She scrambled to her feet, shoving the book at me. I dropped the satchel and stared down at the book, shaking my head. It meant nothing to me. I couldn't read the words. Hell, they didn't even look like words to me. "It's a spell." She told me.

I frowned at her. I knew _that _much.

"It'll help, daddy." Liir was so earnest.

"How is it going to help us _now_, Elphie?" She grinned at me.

"Morrible isn't going to come up here. If Glinda and Avaric are with her, we'll have a little time." I couldn't understand why Elphaba wasn't worried. She had been so adamant to get out of here as soon as possible, and now she was content to stay inside when Horrible Morrible was within walking distance? She didn't make any sense. Lack of a good sleep had to be going to her head. "This will give us time, Fiyero. We'll be safe with this. At least for a little while."

"What is it?" I sighed, caving in a little. I trusted Elphaba. If she wasn't worried, then surely she had a good reason.

"It'll take away any abnormalities." She said softly.

I felt my grip loosen on the book. I didn't realize how lax it went until Elphaba snatched the book away before it fell to the floor. Glinda was right. So she had to be right about it clearing away, too. But the thought of non-green skin on Elphaba had my mouth tasting bitter and my stomach turning. The color of her skin was neither here nor there to me, but I loved her for her skin, in spite of her skin, and because of her skin. It was all part of who she was. What would she be like if she wasn't green? I suppose that was sort of silly. Being a scarecrow didn't change me. Only physically.

"You won't be green." I mumbled, watching her as she looked over the words.

"Just until we're safe." She looked up at the tone of my voice. "There's a spell in here to return what was lost, too. I can go green once we're safe. That's the most important thing."

Liir kept his eyes on me as they both waited for me to say something. Nervously, I sat down in front of her. A wide smile broke out over her face, and I had a hard time admitting I thought this thing was a bad idea. I mean, it made her smile like that. I kissed her forehead then went over to where Liir was. He held my hand tightly as Elphaba began mouthing words. His grip tightened, and I was acutely aware of how his palms started sweating, when Elphaba put sounds with the words. The words were vaguely familiar, as if I had heard them in a dream. The familiarity failed to make me comfortable with them, though. If anything, recognizing them-

I dropped Liir's hand, bring my hand to my gut.

"Daddy?" Liir whispered, concern lacing his words.

I waved my hand. It was nothing. It was probably something I ate. I wasn't use to the food we got here, and my body was just telling me that it couldn't handle much more of what I was feeding it. I would be-

"Daddy!" Liir's voice jumped an octave when I doubled over in pain.

It felt like someone had taken the butt of a rifle and jammed it in my stomach at the same time a pain shot at my shins. I stumbled back into the wall after groping around for it. Vaguely, I heard Elphaba's voice stop. I don't know if she was done with the spell or cut it off early because of me. But I knew her voice wasn't in my head anymore. I blinked hard. I couldn't see anything. Well, I could see everything, but nothing was clear. It was weird. I could point out where everything was, but I couldn't. It didn't make any sense. I gasped sharply. The pain just got worse and worse. Was I bleeding? I brought my hand in front of my face. It felt wet, but I didn't know if there was blood on it. I felt something grab my hand. Elphaba or Liir.

"Fiyero!" Elphaba's voice clearly snapped. I looked in the direction her voice came from. I assumed it was her hands on my face.

A flash of green was the last thing I saw before I plunged elsewhere.

**Please review! They mean the world! Let me know what you think is going on;) I might give you a hot or cold...**


	22. Kiamo Ko

**This is really short, too. I wasn't intending on updating until Wednesay (with a longer chapter), but something's come up. I probably won't get another update out til the weekend, but I promise it'll be before March! **

I felt heavy. Like I had never learned how to move and all of a sudden I had the strongest desire to try. I didn't know the first step, though. All I could feel was my own weight sinking. It was the strangest feeling in the world. How acutely aware of myself I was. I could feel the blood coursing through my veins, feel my heart pumping, feel the signals my mind was giving to different areas of my body. All at the same time, all soft whispers rising to cacaphony. And all of it, all the noise and feelings, just weighed me down. I just wanted to move. To stretch the kinks, ones I could very well feel, out of my back; to shrug the tension out of my shoulders; to do something that relieved the weight cementing me to whatever I was on. I wanted to learn how to fly, to skip over crawling and walking, and just learn how to defy gravity.

There wasn't only me adding to my heaviness, though. As I said, I was acutely aware of myself, and there was something on me that wasn't me. I tried moving my hand to feel the foreign object on me; but I had never learned how to move. Or so it felt like. So I pried an eye open, finding myself staring up at high, stone walls that reminded me so much of the castle Kiamo Ko. The castle that my parents had abadoned ages ago to live in one of our other castles, one where the landscape was more hospitalble to guests and accomadating to life in general. Kiamo Ko was a hell hole. Kiamo Ko was where you went when you had no where else to go. I frowned up at the ceiling. Kiamo Ko was unique, as much as I hated it. The design and resources were unique to the castle. It was built by the same stones that made up the Great Kells. The same stones I was staring up at. I was in Kiamo Ko. Unless some other province of Oz learned the Arjiki's method of extracting the precious stones from the Kells, I was in Kiamo Ko.

A wave of panic hit me, and my body jolted up. Leaving my senses and everything else lying as it had been. The pressure that had been on my abdomen was gone, though, and left me staring at very wide, very concerned brown eyes. Even though light-headedness was the most predominant feeling, relief was fighting for the top spot.

I was in Kiamo Ko. I was with my wife and my son. I was fine.

"Fiyero..." The word came out so strange as it left Elphaba's mouth. She stared at me as if she was seeing me for the first time. "Here," Her hands were shaky as she placed one hand on my shoulder and used her other to stuff pillows between my back and the head of the bed. "Try not to move so much."

"You're still green." I pointed out, and I knew her eye roll was from me stating the obvious. So I couldn't help the smile that tugged at my lips from the normalcy of the interaction. I can't say I wasn't pleased that her spell didn't work, but I couldn't say I was pleased that her magic seemed to fail her.

"Are you feeling well?" She asked, almost nervously.

I brought my hand up to massage my temple, doing anything to bite back the migrane. "Nothing a hot shower won't fix, I suppose. And probably some coffee. Did we drink last night? I haven't felt like this since Avaric and I tried to drink the entire theatre department under the table." I laughed at the memory.

"I-" Elphaba frowned at as she paused. "We didn't drink last night."

I gave me a bemused smile, chuckling softly at the nerves sketched across her worried face. Not that she was in any way funny, but I didn't know how else to react to her odd behavior.

"Are you sure?" I winked at her, giving up on the massage to move my hand through my hair. "Because this hangovers beg to-" My voice cut off when my hand made it all the way through my hair.

Elphaba watched me in a mix of horror and fascination as I moved my hand slowly through my hair and then felt along my hairline. Don't think I'm a simpleton. It wasn't only the different feel and length of my hair that sent my stomach to the floor. It was both of those things added to Elphaba's behavior. Something was wrong. Something was off. The hair that I had grown so accustomed to was gone. What replaced it was so foreign, yet so familiar. Elphaba seemed on the edge of her seat, ready to boil over at any moment. Ignoring the energy she was emitting, I looked down at my body, felt my face, my neck, everything my hands could reach. I jumped when she moved to sit on the bed beside me. I hadn't even heard her breath, let alone move.

"Elphaba-"

"We didn't drink last night." She repeated.

"We didn't drink last night." I tried getting out of the bed, tried moving past her, but she had a firm hand on my chest and pressed my back into the wall of pillows.

"You'll hurt myself."

"Hurt myself?" I laughed bitterly. "I don't even know what's wrong with me, Elphaba. Getting up can hardly be a blow to my well being."

"Don't, Fiyero." She snapped. To prove her point, she flicked a spot on my leg, and I thought I was going to black out just from the pain she sent coursing through my body. "You have open wounds."

"And flicking them is going to help them heal?" I spat.

"Please," She scoffed. I noticed the emotions fighting for dominance on her face. Comfort or clobber. Well, maybe not clobber. Elphaba opened her mouth to say something, but apparently thought better because her mouth closed a split second later. "My spell worked."

"You're green, Elphaba."

"You're you." She whispered, staring down at her hand on my arm.

Fighting the revulsion I felt at the fear of what I looked like, I stole a glance down. "What do you mean?" I asked, although I had a feeling I knew exactly what she meant.

Elphaba was slow to get to her feet, but she moved quickly across the room to pick up a looking glass that had been on the vanity in the corner. She looked down at it hesitantly before coming back over and handing it to me, looking glass side down. I shouldn't have been as nervous as I was to meet the eyes that would be looking back at me. My insides were tearing each other apart with anticipation, though. It was like I'd be seeing a friend I hadn't seen in over seven years. I closed my eyes, bracing myself for what I was about to do. At Elphaba's light but insistent pleas, I bit my nerves back and held the mirror in front of my face with a shaking hand.

**To those of you who guessed Fiyero would look like he did before the scarecrow fiasco: Red hot!**

**So I was thinking about it as I wrote this chapter, but Fiyero's transformation will come in handy more than I intended it to. Like, obviously his turning back serves my main plot line; but his looking exactly like he did before the scarecrow is going aide my Glinda-Elphaba tension.**

**Review if you're still here and waiting for an update?:)**


	23. The Market

**Things will work out, trust me.**

"I keep expecting you just to break out into a random dance." Avaric muttered as we walked cautiously through the market.

"You're not that special." I said back, clenching onto Liir's hand tighter.

The market square was full of people bartering for goods that had been made over the long winter months. Spring in the Vinkus started up when the families who spent all winter producing came to the market to sell. The square itself wasn't originally built for this, but over the decades it just sort of took on that task. I think my father had said that it use to be where the royals, my ancestors, would punish villagers for all their friends and families to see; but the tradition died out when the Wizard became the bigger threat to our homeland. He had said the Vinkuns always took the saying, 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend,' to heart. And if there was anything Vinkuns hated more than other Vinkuns, it was a non-Vinkun trying to dictate the way they ought to live their lives. Anyway, square of punishment took the high road, and salesmen and women moved in to sell their goods to make a living. You could find the finest things in the Vinkus here for a relatively fair price, or even less. Everything was a negotiation.

Avaric stopped at a table that was selling various beverages. Anything from ice cold mead to hot honey milk. The scent was positively Vinkun, and I couldn't help the smile the tugged at my lips. I hadn't had a traditional Vinkun dish in so long. I could feel my mouth watering just thinking about all the food I'd been missing and drink I'd nearly forgotten about. I glanced about the square, trying to find the table with the food, as Avaric was telling something to Liir as we stood and waited in line behind several others. It had to be around here somewhere. The cook in the Grasslands used to make the best sautéed prairie chicken. It was one of the most common animals in the Grasslands, ones that most boys used as training game, but making the perfect dish with one was rare. My stomach started growling just thinking about it. There had to be one somewhere.

I froze for a moment and then turned forward quickly when I caught someone pointing at me.

"Stop acting weird." Avaric bit, glancing about to make sure I hadn't attracted too much attention. He didn't understand. Living on bare minimum gave someone a whole new respect for food.

"Do you know how long it's been since I've had a proper Vinkun meal?" I snapped.

"Do you know how long it'll be before you have one if you mess this up?" He retorted. Liir shifted closer to me. "You were given one job: Just follow me around and look pretty. Can you do that? Or do I need to tell your wife you're incompetent?"

"You're hungry, too?"

"I have better things to be doing with my time than this." Avaric turned back towards the table, remaining silent until we were up. "Hi," He smiled charmingly at the young girl working the table. "My friend here's been out of touch the the Vinkus for a while, can you recommend something that will get him in touch with his roots?"

The girl blushed at Avaric, smiling demurely; but then she switched her attention to me, and the word shock couldn't hold a candle to the emotion that lit up her face. It was gone quickly, though, replaced by doubt. It was a little awful to watch her emotions battle for dominance, but her need for payment won out over whatever personal feelings she was dealing with.

"I, uhm-" She fumbled a moment. "Well, everything we have is some of the finest you'll find in all of the Vinkus. Only the," She paused, looking at me uncertainly, "royals have finer. So I guess it all depends on what you're hoping for a taste of." The girl glanced at Avaric, who winked at her.

"I'm not really sure." I told her, making sure to use the intonation that was common among the elites. Her ears turned red. "Something fit for a king, I suppose." I smiled sheepishly, Avaric laughed, and the girl gave us a delayed and nervous giggle.

"How about you just give us three of your favorites." Avaric offered. The girl nodded slowly.

"One without liquor for my son, please."

Avaric grinned and nodded slightly at me when the girl went to making our drinks with wide eyes and shaking hands. I watched her as she conversed quietly with a woman helping the table, trying to be discreet but failing. The woman, an old portly thing, snapped her head in our direction, stared for a moment before turning back to whatever she was doing. Avaric mumbled something under his breath about things going well, but my mind started churning out all the possible things that could go wrong. Someone in Morrible's cabinet could be here. There could be a spy here from the Emerald City. A random Gale Forcer could be wandering around. Any and all of them would lead to nothing but trouble, and I wouldn't live to see the end of the day. Avaric nudged me when the two came back with out drinks. Praying to Oz that my hands would remain calm, I pulled out the money pouch with the Tiggular crest on it and handed a few coins over the younger girl after taking my cup. Her eyes were glued to the crest.

"Don't look back, don't walk faster." Avaric reminded me and Liir as we weaved through the crowd again, away from the now gossiping women.

I could practically hear them talking about it and telling people near them. It took all of my will not to make a break for the horses. I'd spent years and years avoiding the public's eye, and now I was supposed to be asking for it. Gradually, of course, but I was still putting myself in a position to draw attention to my family. My family who would certainly be in for a whirlwind of trouble if the plan didn't go accordingly. I stole a glance back at the market when we reached the post where our horses were tied. It was a sea of people, but none of them seemed to notice the gigantic pebble we threw in to start the ripples. Avaric gave the village boy watching the horses a handful of coins before he scrambled down an alley as fast as he could, a wide grin on his face and disbelief in his even wider eyes. I pulled myself up onto the horse and then Liir after me.

"It'll be fine, man." Avaric assured me, clicking his tongue in a direction his horse knew.

"Won't people come to castle, though?" Liir asked as the horses started trotting.

"Nah," He shook his head at Liir's question. "It's a crime to call wolf."

"But they actually did see a wolf." Liir pointed out.

"No one's going to believe a bunch of batty gals who've been cooped up in a shack for months on end." Avaric rolled his eyes. "We stick to the plan, and things will work out in the end."

Liir nodded against my back as he wrapped his arms tighter around my midsection when the horses picked up speed.

Elphaba and Glinda were sitting in first floor parlor when we finally got back to Kiamo Ko as the sun was setting. They were in two different corners, and both of them had squared shoulders and high chins. I practically groaned. I didn't know how much more of these petty girl silent arguments I could take. Elphaba insisted the Glinda was not fine, and Glinda insisted she was fine. Any time Avaric or I tried mentioning a theory on the matter, a comment from one girl would cut us like a dagger while, and a glare from the other would send us to an early grave. So we tried not bringing it up when they were both around. But something was up, regardless of what they said.

"The two who sell those beverages," Avaric said, pushing me into the shark tank and then diving in after. Glinda tore her gaze away from Elphaba. "That's who we went to. And he may have caught someone's eye looking around."

Elphaba frowned at me.

I shrugged, "I smelt food."

"It's not like the entire market noticed." Glinda settled on, not looking at me. It was hard for her.

"So now what?" Liir wiggled awkwardly to satisfy an itch. He wasn't use to being clothed in such fine fabric.

"Now you stop moving like that, or you'll wrinkle that." Glinda chastised. Liir looked at Elphaba for direction, and then stopped moving when she raised her eyebrows. Glinda went on, "The Queen is coming up tomorrow from the Grasslands, so you three are going to keep low and away from the windows. Reporters from this end are going to be around, asking about all sorts of things. So the last thing she needs to worry about is you all being exposed."

"Are you two staying?" I asked.

Avaric nodded.

Silence.

"I should go find you some clothes to wear." Glinda broke it, standing up and running a hand over her dress to smooth it out.

"I'll help." Elphaba snapped up. Glinda stared at her like she was speaking in a foreign language. "Well, I'll keep you company." She mumbled.

"That's alright, Elphie." The blonde's smile was all too superficial. "I need Avaric for size comparison anyway. You stay with your family." The was she said family...it was almost like it was a crime.

The three of us sat in a comfortable silence. Occasionally, Liir and Elphaba would poke fun of me as I watched myself in the mirror, but I just shrugged their taunts off and kept at it. It was an adjustment for us all, and I wasn't born with the same process-and-move-on gene Elphaba and Liir both had. And maybe it was the fact that it was me who was experiencing it. I titled my head from side to side, despite the giggles behind me, to make sure nothing had changed from the previous time I did it. I understood magic. Believe me. Living with Elphaba, loving her, one got a new perspective on the dos and don'ts, ins and outs, of the entire subject matter; but comprehending it and being on the receiving end of it were two different things. You can study politics all your life, but you're not a politician until you're faced with a situation. You can spend hours on end reading books in a foreign language, but you won't have a true grasp on it until you're immersed in the language completely. Magic's saved my life more times than I can count on one hand. I'd have never fully appreciated it if I just _read _about the good things it can do.

All of that aside, though, being back in my own body, the body I was born with, was surreal. So I really couldn't help but get swept up by my face. And the rest of me. Things I thought I'd never see again were staring me in the face. And, I'm sorry but, things I never thought I'd feel again were right as rain. It was nice, for a lack of better words. It was nice to be me again. Not that I wasn't grateful for the body I had been or even the sack of hay I once was -yes, even the scarecrow-, but this was right. I knew this body. I knew its limits, cravings, and every scar upon it. It was me. It was me, exactly as I had been before everything started. The bruises left by the Gale Force, men who had once been my own, faded with the weeks; and the cuts under my clothes were no longer the grotesque things they had been coming back. Everything was simmering down and returning to some state next to normalcy. So, now, it was Ero living and walking among the Vinkun people, it was their long lost Prince. It was the only thing Elphaba and Glinda seemed to agree on: The Vinkun people were going to give the Morribles the shock of their life.

I held Liir's hand as we walked through the corridors some time later, on our way to put him to bed. He skipped, humming a tune to mock me, and tried to get me to join in. I may or may not have humored him. I mean, he needed something to cheer him up; and what father would forgo the opportunity to truly make his child smile and laugh.

"You look younger than mama." Liir said as I helped him out of his clothes without wrinkling them.

"Not by much." I assured him.

"So this is what you looked like when you were going to marry Glinda?"

"I was never going to marry Glinda."

"This is what you looked like?"

I nodded.

"Will I look like you when I grown up?"

I laughed, tossling his hair, "Your mother's got all the looks, bug." I kissed his forehead.

"I think I'd be lucky to look like either of you." He mumbled as he climbed into the bed. "You should tell mama she's beautiful more often."

"You know she hates that."

"Yeah, that's why you got to." He yawned, pulling the covers up to his chin. "If she keeps telling herself that she's not beautiful enough for you, then she'll start believing it. You got to let her know she's the one with all the looks."

I kissed Liir's forehead again.

Elphaba kept a keen eye on me when I came back down in a new outfit and with a sack full of random objects. There was an open book in her lap, but I knew the white pants I was wearing held her attention more than some boring text. Of course, the pants were Avaric's. Which was a little odd for me to be wearing pants I'm sure he only owned to woo Glinda. They were doe skin pants, though, and they made the butt I thought I lost look great. I set the sack on a coffee table and started taking things from it, placing them around the room strategically. Elphaba stared at me as I lit the candles. I wanted to say something about how good she looked in this light, but I knew it would just piss her off if I did. Temperamental house animal. So I kept placed candles around the parlor in silence. I pushed a few pieces of furniture against the wall. I pulled some pieces of silk fabric from the sack, bunched one on each window sill, and then placed the flower vases, that had been elsewhere in the room, in the middle of each bunch. It was all very relaxed and romantic. I was quite proud of my on-the-fly ability to pull something endearing off. I grinned at my work.

"What are you up to?" Elphaba's voice pulled me out of my internal gloating.

I glanced back at her with my grin still in place, "Admiring my work." I said.

She rolled her eyes, "You know what I meant." I only grinned wider.

"Here," I took the book from here and set it on the table before dragging her to a standing position. "Humor me."

She looked at me warily, so I kissed her cheek. It really didn't help, but I kissed her other cheek anyway. I didn't need a reason to kiss my wife. I lead her to the middle of the room and dropped her hands to spin as I started humming a familiar tune. Her wary expression faded into bemusement, and she crossed her arms over her chest. I laughed at the look on her face and then pinned her arms to her side. I loved the smile that kept cracking over her face. It was clearly obvious that she was trying to hide it, but I kept moving and singing and doing all the ridiculous things that made her mind attempt to shut itself down. She crossed her arms again, so instead of trying to pin them down again, I took her hands and gave her a whirl. It earned me a peal of laughter, more like giggling, and I knew she was letting go. Of course, Elphaba, being the overanalytical woman she is, had to go and overanalyze everything about we were doing; and the glee that had been in her eyes turned skeptical. I nearly groaned at the mood swing.

"Isn't this the song you wooed Glinda with?" Her eyes were narrow, looking me over.

Good thing for me: I was quick on my feet.

I pulled her back to me, leaving no room for even a hair to come between us. Elphaba's breath hitched as I held her close, humming another tune I knew she'd recognize. The smile, bemusement, glee, and skepticism drained from her face. But her new countenance was just as impressive. Breathless. I was leaving her breathless.

Elphaba's fingers tickled the hair at the nape of my neck as we settled into a slow and intimate dance. Well, you could hardly call it dancing, more like swaying, but I didn't care. I could feel her pulse racing, but her face was the poster of calm. Things were right. I kissed her slowly, trying as hard as I could to tell her everything in that kiss.

I couldn't, though. There were too many words and too little time.

"I love you." I mumbled against her lips, stoking her cheek with one hand while the other held her to me.

She brushed my bangs from my face and let her hand linger in my hair. "You're beautiful." She finally said.

"You must be rubbing off on me." I smirked.

Her gaze flicked back to me, completely serious, "Really, Fiyero." She whispered, looking over everything she was capable of seeing from this angle. "You can be the Vinkun Prince again."

"I'm your Vinkun slave." I kissed her again, but she pulled away.

"You're the same man who left Glinda."

"I'm the same man who chose you, and I'd do it all over again." I broke away and took her hands. "I love you, Elphaba, and you're the only one I want. Glinda will get over it. I've never been hers." I squeezed her hands.

"I'm not being insecure." She snapped, thinking that she was reading my thoughts.

"I didn't say you were."

"I can see it in your eyes."

"Then you're seeing things." Then added, "You're beautiful."

She grinned and kissed me, "It's good to see your personality hasn't changed with your looks."

"I'm the same man who chose you." I repeated.

"Yes, you are."

I kissed her this time, and she let me take it as far as I wanted to.

**They're reintroducing Fiyero to the Vinkus, slowly, because they want the Vinkuns to doubt the Morribles credibility. **

**Review if you like the idea of Fiyero in tight white pants;)**


	24. Forward

**Thank you so much for all the support with this fic! I love you all!**

**It's short, sorry! It's something, though.**

Elphaba's leg slipped between mine as she shifted in her sleep to a different position. Her arms snaked around my midsection, and her long black hair tickled my own arm that was wrapped around her. I froze, afraid that even the slightest movement from me would wake her up and have her walking out the door into the intruding morning. So I stayed still for as long as I possibly could. The warm exhales she was releasing tickled my chest, and for a moment, I thought that maybe she was up and doing this on purpose. Minutes ticked by, though, and she remained in the same position, breathing deeply. I wiggled out of the bed successfully without walking the sleeping green girl. Quickly, I slipped into the bathroom. Elphaba always smelt fresh and clean whenever she woke up, and I just wanted to return the favor. Who wants to wake up to dragon breath? I washed my face, brushed my teeth, cleaned up any morning stink that may have surfaced after the night we had. She was still asleep when I came back out, although her position had changed to face the other side of the bed. So I slid into that side. Content, I could feel myself falling back to sleep.

"Wake up!"

I buried my head deeper into the pillow at the sound of Liir's voice over the pounding on the bedroom door. I would have been alright to let him stay out there for five more minutes, but Elphaba slapped my stomach before dragging herself out of bed.

"Good morning to you, too." I grunted as she picked up her clothing from around the room. My comment earned me a half assed glare.

"You clearly let Liir's manners go to waste when I was gone." I glanced at her as she clasped her bra. Her hair fell over her shoulders in the most teasing way, and for the umpteenth time in my life, I wished it was possible to rewind the clock. "Fiyero." She snapped me back to reality.

Grunting, I crossed the room to steal a peer out the window before going to calm the pounding on our door. He had to know that it was not appropriate to do that in any country, any house, at any age.

I glanced back at Elphaba, making sure she was decent, before cracking the door and frowning down at my son, "Liir."

He grinned up at me.

"What do you want?" I asked, still not opening the door completely, but he didn't look like he wanted in anyway. I heard Elphaba mumble something about my tone, but I was too concerned about the shit eating grin on my kid's face to worry about which tone was appropriate. He took away the possibility of morning sex. I was inclined to use whichever tone I wanted.

"I was talking to Miss Glinda."

"Oh, isn't that precious." Elphaba sneered from behind me.

"And we were doing math."

"She'll be burned out for the rest of the day."

"Elphaba." I chided.

"I learned a lot of interesting things today." I stared down at him. "Counting dates and such. A little bit of history, too. Aren't you going to let me in?"

"Do you know what time it is?"

"Eight."

"Of course it is." I sighed.

Liir pushed past me to get into the room. He made to sit on the bed, but when he studied the sheets, he thought better and just stood between his mother and me.

"I think you two should go camping," He said. I frowned at Elphaba. "In the woods." Yeah, I figured as much.

"Why would we want to go camping?" Elphaba asked him, crossing her arms. "Liir, honey, do you understand the situation we're in right now? We can't just go about life like we had. Dire times call for a little more security and tight keeping."

"I want a sibling."

"A sib-" Elphaba cut herself off with an odd sound. Too soon, Liir, too soon. "What does camping have to do with conception?" He raised his eyebrows at her and waved a hand up and down his torso. I choked back a laugh, but Elphaba did not find it so funny. And with good reason. Clearly Liir needed to be reminded of proper manners. Or maybe just manners in general. Perhaps I did let them go lax in Elphaba's absence.

"Oh, for the love of Oz." Elphaba threw hew arms up and retreated into the bathroom.

"One," I steered him out of the room by his shoulder. "Too soon. And two, your mother and I are more than capable of conceiving in places other than a forest. Go talk to Glinda about normal things." I shut the door behind him.

After being sharply told to bug off by my oh so chipper wife, I dressed quickly and went to find a mirror in the corridor to use. Since my bathroom was otherwise occupied by a temperamental green bean. I froze in front of the mirror, though, as the girl from the market came scrambling down the corridor. She tumbled to a stop at the sight of me, staring with wide eyes and a slack mouth. I didn't know what to do. Should I say 'Good morning'? Was I supposed to turn from the mirror and smile at her or smile at her from the mirror? What was she even doing here? Out of the corner of my eye, though, I caught the sight of a bare-chested Avaric leaning against the frame of a bedroom with a shit eating grin on his face. Oh. I nodded to the girl in acknowledgement before turning my attention back to fixing my hair. She made some sort of whimpering noise and resumed breaking for freedom. Avaric didn't move from his spot, so when the girl's footsteps faded into the normal Vinkun morning silence, I turned to Avaric with a critical eye.

"Please tell me you at least paid the poor girl for having to keep you company."

"Oh, I paid her alright." He smirked. "She just won't be able to buy anything with her compensation."

"You're a pig."

"That's rich coming from you." He winked when I frowned at him. "Don't get your panties in a bunch. She was asleep the entire time."

"Avaric!"

"Not like that!" He bit. "I mean, I got her drunk on our finest wine, compensation she can't buy anything with, and then scruffed her up a bit. She looks like she had a night, she thinks she had a night, and I get the satisfaction of her gossiping about having a night."

"How could you possibly benefit from her having a night?" I asked as he threw a tunic on and followed me down the corridor.

"I benefit because she just woke up to find the Crowned Prince Fiyero checking himself out in a mirror. And that, my friend, will circulate and make Glinda a very happy woman."

I rolled my eyes.

"I don't know where this attitude is coming from." Avaric reprimanded. "Glinda being happy with me makes Glinda less prone to being unhappy with your little happy family. You should be thanking me." I gave him another eye roll. "If you prefer, I can piss Glinda off. Just don't come whining to me when Elphaba gets all..." He trailed off, looking for an appropriate word. "Elphaba when Glinda reverts to her angry blonde ways. Don't underestimate how much fire is in that little tea pot."

"I don't appreciate being compared to a tea pot, Avaric." Glinda snapped, nearly scaring the shit out of both of us. "Fiyero," She turned her attention to me. "I was talking to Liir this morning-"

"So I heard." She blushed a light pink at that.

"Anywho," Glinda beckoned for us to follow her. "He was telling me about his incidents. Tragic, by the way. I'll look through my files and see if I can find a way to help him manage that, so he's not a further risk management issue. But as I was saying, his incidents, I think they can come in handy with what we need to really get things going."

"I just helped the Prince Fiyero sighting gossip along." Avaric threw in.

"That's wonderful, dearie," She grinned. Avaric frowned at her distractedness. "If we can get Liir to have an accident after an interaction with one or both of the Morribles, we may be able to really convince the Vinkuns that the Morribles tried to take out the heir to the Vinkun throne."

"I'm sure you could get the Munchkins to revolt." Avaric mumbled dejectedly.

"The Munchkins won't do anything unless someone else does it first." Glinda waved her hand. I gave Avaric a sympathetic look. "So just hang tight, Fiyero. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go drag your wife through a wardrobe." She kissed my cheek and made to leave. "The Scrow are in town with a new breed of horses. It would be beneficial if you took Liir out riding. Avaric and I were there when they were training the stallions, and they sure are beauties." And then she disappeared down the corridor.

Avaric grumbled something that could have been an insult towards Glinda, but I think he was just mocking her les than attentive reactions to him. I patted his shoulder and left him to sulk by himself.

Liir was in his room with the door open, trying on different shirts to go with the pants that Glinda had brought for him. I leaned against the door frame and watched him in amusement. He had the pants on backwards, and the shirts he was picking did not match at all. I stopped him before he went to put his boots on. He blushed like Elphaba when I told him that he had put his pants on backwards and his tunic inside out. He wasn't used to Oz's style, so I reminded him that he had nothing to be ashamed of. Style in the Bad Lands was different than any of the fashion in any of the regions of Oz. Hell, the fashion betwen the provinces differed so much, it was ridiculous. Luckily for Liir, we were in the Vinkus. I may be biased, but I liked to think we had the most reasonable style out of all of the areas. The Munchkins had too many patterns, the Gillikins too many cuts, the Quadlings had too little of everything, but the Vinkuns did clothes just right.

"Are we going somewhere?" Liir asked as we walked through the corridors.

I nodded, "The Scrow, one of the clans of the Vinkus, have the best horses in Oz. Munchkinland tries to say that they do, but it's complete crap, let me tell you. The Scrow have a way with their horses that no one can describe or replicate. You buy a horse from the Scrow, and you won't want one from anywhere else."

"So we're going to see horses?" He grinned up at me, following me out of the castle.

"You haven't lived until you've ridden a Scrow Stallion."

"Mama says the same thing about her broom."

"Yeah, well, trust me," I huffed, "our anatomy does not favor that little broomstick."

His grin widened, and I got the added bonus of a chuckle as he thought the comment out.

"Is this so people can see you in public?" His smile faded a little.

"This is so I can show my son what it was like growing up in the Vinkus. I couldn't care less if people saw me out." I nudged his cheek lightly with our clasped hands.

"Good." Liir's step took on a little more pep. "You know what I should do..."

"What's that?"

"Get Mama a horse."

"You?"

"Yeah, I get her a horse, and she'll give me a sibling!"

**It's been about four months, give or take, since Elphaba had the miscarriage, just for the record.**

**Review? Por favor? Bitte? Please?**


	25. Baby Talk

**You all are amazing! I can't tell you how lucky I am that you're reading this. Your support is the greatest. Honestly.**

**This chapter wasn't even supposed to happen. But I love Liir. And I love cliffhangers. **

**So here's Liir being the little shit he is:**

Liir was quite adamant about being a big brother. And tenaciously so. The boy went as far as to coax Avaric into helping him plan out a meal for mine and Elphaba's missed anniversary. It consisted of mostly of tiny portions and food that somehow had 'young' or 'baby' in the name. It was safe to say that my son was nothing if not obvious. Of course, though, he wasn't going to stop there. No. His genes were of mine and Elphaba's. It was biologically impossible for him to let something go. So he cajoled Glinda into bringing her twins around. They were two of the cutest little things you ever set your eyes on. Both with wild blonde curls and bright blue eyes. Liir devoted so much time and energy into playing with them and caring for them the best he could, all while sending meaningful glances at Elphaba whenever she walked past the room. I probably should have told him to lay off. But Elphaba wasn't protesting, and Glinda's twins were just too adorable to cut contact with. Although, out of loyalty and solidarity to my wife, I only cooed over the little tykes when Elphaba was engrossed in some book or another in the library.

"Daddy," Liir said two weeks after his mission started. I was sitting in my mother's old office, reading over some proclamations that had been signed in my absence-mostly free-trade agreements among the clans and Munchkins. "Can I ask you a question?"

"You don't need to ask, Liir." I mumbled, finishing off the paragraph before looking at him.

"It was more of a warning than an actual question."

"Lucky me," I smirked.

"When you left Glinda for Mama, how did you tell her?"

"How did I tell Glinda that I was leaving her for your mother?"

Liir nodded. I wondered if he ever thought less of me after finding out the things he has.

"Well," I drummed my fingers against the desk. "I didn't...didn't technically tell her..." I watched his face closely. It was unreadable. As if I was talking to Elphaba.

"No word or nothing?"

"I just took off with your mother while she was in the room." I said slowly. It seemed like a really romantic gesture at the time. You know, putting my life and reputation on the line, no, actually, completely squashing it, to run off with a woman I spent years, under the cover of an officer, searching for. But looking back on it as Liir stared at me with a blank expression, it was sounding a little like an asshole move. I nodded along with my thoughts. "She may have been under the impression that we'd been seeing each other behind her back for some time, but it wasn't like that. Well, it was, but it wasn't."

"That doesn't make any sense."

I harrumphed, "So I've been told. What's the interest for, anyway? Surely you have some reason other than to make me look like a terrible person." I accused jokingly.

"I'm going to break her heart, too."

"Excuse me?"

"I can't handle the toddlers anymore." I raised my eyebrows at him. "She wants to teach me how to change their diapers!" He burst out, his emotions finally coming to life. Horror. Horror and terror were big players. "Why should I have to change a diaper? She's the mother, she should change the diapers."

I made a face. "I'm pretty sure your mother has given you multiple lectures on sexism, Liir."

He frowned at me before continuing, "I mean that they're her children, and because she shares their..." He trailed off, thinking of the word.

"DNA." I supplied for him.

"Because she shares their DNA, she should have to clean them." He got very still and serious as he asked the next, "Do you _know _what is in those diapers?"

I should have won an award for my ability to keep a straight face, "I'm fairly certain I do." I assured him.

He raised his hands and slumped back in the chair, "I'm not touching that."

"Well, you know," I grinned. "If your mother has another baby then you'll share his or her DNA, so, by your logic, you should have a share in diaper changing for that baby." Liir narrowed his eyes as he considered it. "And if you think that toddler poo is bad, bug, you know nothing. Babies go through like ten diapers a day."

"Everyday?"

"Most days."

"That's a risk I'm willing to take." I let out a bark of laughter and shooed him away. "I did send away for something for her, though." I frowned up at him. "It should be arriving within a day or so."

"What did you do, Liir?"

"Don't worry," I did not like the wide grin on his face. It was a little unnerving. "It's simply a gift from a good son to a good mama."

**Fun things are planned for next chapter! ;)**

**Leave some love?:)**


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